WHO report on method of work of the governing bodies

Friday, 22 January 2010

The 126th session of the Executive Board (EB) of the World Health Organization has deliberated over a Report by the WHO Secretariat entitled “Method of work of the governing bodies” (EB126/26) “has taken note of the report”.

Here are some choice excerpts from the report.

1. During the 125th session of the Executive Board, members expressed satisfaction at the short duration and efficient conduct of the Sixty-second World Health Assembly and of that session of the Board. There was interest in applying that experience to future Health Assemblies and sessions of the Board. Members noted the advantages of disciplined timekeeping, focused debate and shorter format, and that those advantages were in part achieved through the postponement by the Sixty-second World
Health Assembly of 11 agenda items to either the 126th session of the Board or the Sixty-third World Health Assembly.

2. The Board requested the Secretariat to review the working methods of the Health Assembly and the Board. This report contains a number of proposals to facilitate disciplined timekeeping and better agenda management. In addition it suggests potential benefits that could be achieved through other efficiency measures such as harmonization of the Rules of Procedure of the Board with those of the Health Assembly, and taking advantage of new technologies with respect to production of official records.

5. The Health Assembly customarily agrees to limit the duration of statements during the debate on the Address by the Director-General under item 3 to five minutes, or 10 minutes for group statements. (As a rough guide, to allow for optimum interpretation, a five-minute speech would contain approximately 500 words, and a ten-minute speech 1000.) This reflects Rule 55 of the Rules of Procedure which states that “The Health Assembly may limit the time allowed to each speaker”. The
President of the Health Assembly may decide to ensure more rigorously that the Member States keep to their allotted time.

HARMONIZING THE RULES OF PROCEDURE OF THE WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY AND THE EXECUTIVE BOARD

15. The Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board lack some of the provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the World Health Assembly, in particular with regard to conduct of business. Existing gaps in the Rules of the Board may, therefore, generate uncertainty and confusion during the Board’s proceedings.

16. In view of the foregoing, the Board may wish to consider the following amendments to its Rules of Procedure so as to align them more closely with the corresponding Rules of the Health Assembly. Specific textual proposals are provided in the Annex to the present report:

• the right of reply (Rule 57 of the Rules of Procedure of the World Health Assembly);

• the right of Members to make explanations of vote after the adoption of a decision (Rule 75 of the Rules of Procedure of the World Health Assembly);

• the requirement that, in an election, Members vote for that number of candidates equal to the number of places to be filled (Rule 81 of the Rules of Procedure of the World Health Assembly);

• a residual provision to overcome the inability of the Board to fill one or more elective places during an election by reason of an equal number of votes received by two or more candidates (Rule 82 of the Rules of Procedure of the World Health Assembly).

Pre-session documentation

18. All documents, translated into all official languages, are currently uploaded to the Governance pages on the WHO web site as soon as they are ready for print. To encourage the maximum uptake through this, the most efficient form of delivery, the WHO Secretariat could send an automated e-mail alert to all missions, WHO Representatives, and regional and country offices when new documents are posted. Many Member States are already using this form of access to receive their pre-session documentation. This presents clear opportunities for improved communication and the rationalization of costs related to print and dispatch.

19. The Board may wish to consider a minimized dispatch (a single copy of each document in the appropriate languages to the designated principal recipient in each Member State, as per the official list of addresses). Sets of documents would still be provided for Member States at each session. Any Member State experiencing difficulty in accessing documents electronically would be sent documents in the normal way, upon request.

Post-session documentation (official records)

20. The public plenary meetings of the Health Assembly will be digitally recorded and made available to Member States as soon as possible after the close of the session. Each intervention will be recorded and published in the language of original delivery.

21. The Board may wish to advise on the suitability of taking steps to modernize the verbatim record using an audio version of proceedings.

22. No change is proposed to the preparation of the summary record.

The decision taken by the Executive Board on this report is reproduced below.