The 61st Meeting of Regional Director with WHO Representatives, Closing Remarks, 16-20 November 2009, WHO SEARO, New Delhi, India.

Closing remarks by Dr Samlee Plianbangchang Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia At the The 61 st Meeting of the Regional Director with WHO Representatives 16-20 November 2009 WHO SEARO, New Delhi 1 The 61 st Meeting of the Regional Director with WHO Representatives 16-20 November 2009 WHO SEARO, New Delhi Closing remarks by: Dr Samlee Plianbangchang, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia ------------- Colleagues, Now we come to the end of our meeting. This time the agenda is not heavy. We have provided plenty of time for WRs to meet individually with the TUs. Since we do not have many items on the agenda, we therefore have more time for in-depth discussions. I hope that many issues have been clarified and better understood. However, understanding and practice may not always go together. We have to go back to work and bring the issues up for discussion again. That is the reason why we need frequent dialogue and consultation among ourselves. We are able to meet face to face like this only twice a year. Therefore, we may use telecommunication tools, especially videoconference. However, it will be difficult to connect all WRs through VC. We will thus try to use our two meetings in a year in the most efficient and effective manner. 2 As we discussed, we expect to face a big challenge for the next some months, the challenge due to GSM roll-out. We have to be well prepared to face this. We also have to be well prepared mentally. We have to view this challenge in a positive manner. We have to try our best to get past the difficulties ahead. Let us move forward together with strong determination and spirit. As I said, the new financial rule is to improve our financial discipline. GSM is to improve our management discipline. These will lead to improved efficiency at work. We should welcome these developments and work towards them. Horizontal collaboration and MCAs should continue with intensified efforts. We are the only WHO Region implementing this strategy. And we have found that the strategy is very useful in improving our work efficiency at the country level. Please make the MCA process simple, straightforward, flexible, easy to understand and easy to implement. Delegation of authority will be regularly reviewed. If it is indicated, more delegation will be effected. Decentralization of resources will continue. Efforts will be made to ensure that there is adequate capacity at the country level to utilize the resources. We will try to ensure that support from the Regional Office to country offices will be adequate. The Regional Office has to strengthen its own capacity to be able to do that. Review missions will continue. The main purpose of this mission is to help country offices solve the problems of Programme Budget implementation. As already done, we also 3 involve country office staff in the mission. Review mission is a useful exercise. We should work together to make it more effective. I thank all WRs for their time and active participation. I thank the Regional Office staff for their support. Next time we will ensure that Regional Office staff have a greater degree of participation in the discussions. I thank the Secretariat who worked behind the scenes to make the meeting possible. I thank the senior staff for hosting lunch every day. I thank all other staff members for facilitating the meeting in various ways. Now, we look forward to our June meeting. Please take note that it will be from 7 to 11 June 2010. With its significant advantages, Bangkok can be the venue again. We will continue issue-based reviews and discussions. We hope to have more in-depth discussions on various management issues identified in our day-to-day work. The November 2010 meeting will be held on 15-19 November 2010. Once again, I wish the three retiring WRs, Dr Alexander Andjaparidze, Dr Salim J. Habayeb, and Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol all the best and excellent health in their retired life. Finally, I wish all of us Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you.