The Meeting of Administrative Officers, Remarks, 18-20 September 2007, New Delhi, India

Remarks By Dr Samlee Plianbangchang Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia At The Meeting of Administrative Officers New Delhi, India 18-20 September 2007 The Meeting of Administrative Officers 18-20 September 2007 New Delhi, India Remarks By DR SAMLEE PLIANBANGCHANG REGIONAL DIRECTOR, WHO SOUTH-EAST ASIA Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I warmly welcome you all to our Regional Meeting of Administrative Officers. In the WHO country office, an Administrative Officer or AO is a very important person who has to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of work in the areas of administration and finance. It should not be an overstatement for me to say that an AO is like the Director Administration and Finance or DAF at the country level. He or she provides managerial support to country’s programme operations. He or she also ensures compliance to administrative and financial rules. And, he or she is the key to management efficiency of the WHO country office. An AO must be able to provide necessary advice to the WHO Representative or the WR, as far as Administration and Finance matters are concerned. Furthermore, an AO must be managerially competent and skilled in order to be really effective in his or her role. He or she should be well versed with the provisions of relevant documents, especially the WHO Manual, SEAR Handbook and Information Circulars, etc. The work of an AO today is different from what it was before. This is due mainly to a steep increase in voluntary contributions to WHO country programmes, and to the national health programmes directly. As a result, the work of an AO has increased greatly. It has also become more complex and complicated. 2 Many WHO country offices need more staff for Administration and Finance areas. But, it is difficult, to increase the number of staff. Governments of Member countries do not want increase in WHO country staff, especially at the cost of WHO country Regular Budget. Moreover, donors do not want their money to be spent on staff costs. Therefore, WHO country offices have to work closely and coordinatedly with the Regional Office. They have to seek the Regional Office’s help on various issues, such as IT and related Administrative support etc. Very importantly, there is a real need to ensure necessary competence and skills of A and F country staff at all times, especially support staff. There is also a need to train and retrain such staff. In this context, DAF has to always ensure efficient support to WHO country offices in all A& F areas. We are now coming to the end of the 2006-2007 biennium. Under the new financial regulations and rules, all financial obligations must be completely liquidated by the end of this year. At the country level, an AO has to play a key role in contributing to the successful completion of the 2006-2007 WHO country programme budget. At the same time, an AO has to play an important role in preparing for implementation of the 2008-2009 programme budget. So much for administrative and financial matters. With regard to Staff Development and Learning or SDL, an AO has to play a leading role in assisting the WR to ensure that appropriate training is provided to support staff. Such training may be organized locally with support from the Regional Office. I would now like to underline the importance of office management training. This is in addition to training in the areas of finance, budget and procurements etc. An AO should pay special attention to staff relations. For this, he or she should work coordinatedly with the Regional Office to ensure harmony and unity among support staff. In many countries, there is a WHO country Staff Association. An AO has to liaise with the Staff Association as far as staff welfare is concerned. However, he or she has to confine himself or herself to A and F areas, which are operationally very important. This is especially true for a country office that has other staff such as PHA, PMO or Planner responsible for Programme development and management or PDM. In case there is no one specifically assigned for PDM, the AO may have to help the WR regarding this area of work. Please keep in mind that PDM work is one of the basic functions of a WR, and he or she is directly responsible for it. 3 As the workload is increasing and work is becoming more complex and complicated, the AO and other staff members will be put under constant pressure. They will be under undue stress and strain. In such a situation, there should be time for relaxation and introspection. One way to do this is through a “Retreat”. At such a “retreat”, among other things, the causes of stress and strain may be identified, analysed, and solutions found. Such causes may relate to (i) competence or skills of staff, (ii) the real workload, or (iii) work environment. Concerning career prospects, we have, among other things, planned for rotation of AOs. We are also considering to establish the following awards as incentive: (i) Best support services’ staff member – WHO; (ii) best AO, or best A&F staff in WCO. DAF may wish to explain the approach regarding this plan during the course of this meeting. Last but not the least, an AO has to liaise a lot with concerned nationals regarding A and F areas. He or she should act in the most courteous, diplomatic and matured manner. This will take us a long way in building cordial and smooth working relationships with countries. The agenda for this meeting is really full of interesting and important items, covering all aspects of A and F areas. I hope that all of you would find this meeting useful and fruitful. I am sure all of you will be kept very busy throughout the course of the meeting. I wish you all the best and all success in your deliberations. And, I wish you a comfortable and enjoyable stay in Delhi. Thank you.