Min. Lawrence to serve on World Health Organisation’s Executive Board

DPI, Guyana, Monday, September 24, 2018

Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence has been nominated to be a member of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Executive Board at next year’s World Health Assembly in 2019. The life of this new Executive Board will commence in April 2019.

This was announced at a Regional Committee meeting for the Americas being hosted by WHO in Washington DC. Minister Lawrence is attending this meeting in her capacity as Guyana’s Public Health Minister. The engagement runs from September 23 to 27, 2018.

Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence.

Minister Lawrence will serve a term of three years from 2020 to 2022. The board on which the minister has been nominated to serve plays a significant role in meetings at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The board usually gives effect to the decisions and policies of the Health Assembly, advises it and generally facilitates its work

The Executive Board is composed of 34 technically qualified elected members. The annual Board meeting is held in January when the members agree upon the agenda for the World Health Assembly and the resolutions to be considered by the Health Assembly. A follow-up meeting to the Health Assembly takes place in May.

The main meeting of the board, at which the agenda for the forthcoming Health Assembly is agreed upon and resolutions for forwarding to the Health Assembly are adopted, is held in January, with a second shorter meeting in May, immediately after the Health Assembly, for more administrative matters.

The World Health Assembly considers reports of the Executive Board, which it instructs in regard to matters on which further action, study, investigation or report may be required. Since WHA is the supreme decision-making body for the WHO, this gathering oversees the appointment of the Director-General, supervises the financial policies of the Organisation, and reviews and approves the proposed programme budget.

Minister Lawrence has also been nominated to serve on the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences, also known by its original name Regional Library of Medicine (BIREME, acronym in Portuguese), in Brazil. This appointment is for a period of two years.

Delicia Haynes.
Images: Ministry of Public Health (Aubrey Odle).

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