WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION EXECUTIVE BOARD 106th Session Provisional agenda item 6 EB106/6 26 April 2000
Reports of the Joint Inspection Unit: follow-up procedures BACKGROUND 1. In January 2000, the Administration, Budget and Finance Committee in the report of its twelfth meeting recommended to the Board that WHO and the Joint Inspection Unit should establish clear procedures for the handling of the Unit’s reports in the future. The Executive Board noted those recommendations and requested that proposals for appropriate procedures should be submitted to it at its 106th session in May 2000.1 2. As a result, further discussions have been held with the Unit, focusing on recommendations contained in the Unit’s Annual Report for 1996/97, Annex I, and in a Note from the Unit to WHO of July 1999.2 3. The agreement reached, subject to the Board’s approval, seeks to implement the Unit’s recommendations without unduly burdening the already heavy agenda of the governing bodies or overtaxing the WHO Secretariat with reporting on follow-up. It essentially follows the recommendations contained in the Unit’s Note to WHO referred to above. The proposed arrangements, which will be evaluated after three years of operation, are set out below.
RELEVANCE OF REPORTS 4. Upon receipt of the Unit’s Annual Programme of Work, WHO will provide the Unit with its preliminary reaction on whether the reports included therein and/or in the following year’s preliminary listing, are relevant to WHO. 5. At the beginning of preparation of its reports, the Unit will circulate a more detailed justification of the report, including a description of the objectives, focus and scope, and main problems to be addressed. 6. Upon receipt of the first draft report, WHO will clearly and openly inform the Unit of its opinion, including justification, on whether the report is relevant to the Organization.
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See document EB105/SR/8, Summary record of the eighth meeting, section 1. JIU/NOTE/99/1.
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7. In case of disagreement between WHO and the Unit on the relevance of a report, the two parties will engage in a substantive discussion on its relevance. Basic criteria to determine relevance of reports will be agreed upon between the Unit and WHO.
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE JOINT INSPECTION UNIT 8. As far as recommendations of the Unit are concerned, it has been agreed that further work is required in the focusing of future reports to ensure that recommendations are: (a) directed at correcting clear deficiencies with practical, action-oriented measures to solve significant problems; (b) convincing, and well supported by the facts and analysis in the report; (c) realistic in terms of implied resource commitments and technical capabilities; (d) cost-effective; and (e) specific regarding actions to be taken, and those responsible for taking actions, so that implementation and outcome can be clearly tracked. 9. Based on the above understanding, WHO is committed to ensuring that its comments on the Unit’s recommendations are clear, open, specific and well supported with evidence. The comments will indicate which recommendations it considers relevant. 10. In its comments on the first draft report, WHO will indicate which of the acceptable recommendations can be implemented without need for legislative action because, in its opinion, they fall within the Director-General’s authority. In the event that all recommendations are accepted by the Director-General and that she has the authority to implement them, the report will not be submitted to the Executive Board but will be replaced by a note addressed solely to the Director-General. 11. The Unit will endeavour to tailor its recommendations, where necessary and feasible, to the specific needs of the Organization. It further intends to introduce a practice of segmenting the recommendations in its reports into two categories, namely: those addressed to the Director-General and those addressed to the legislative organs. Therefore, the debate of the legislative organs will focus mainly on those recommendations addressed to them for action. 12. When recommendations require legislative action, the Director-General will encourage the Executive Board to take specific decisions (endorse, modify or reject) on each of the recommendations contained in the reports submitted to it on the basis of the criteria described in paragraphs 8 and 11 above.
REVIEW BY THE BOARD AND FOLLOW-UP 13. Considering the status of the Unit as a subsidiary organ of the legislative bodies of WHO in accordance with Article 1, paragraph 2 of the Unit’s Statute, WHO undertakes to give due visibility to the Unit during its attendance at sessions of the Executive Board. 14. It was agreed that the Unit’s reports will normally be taken up in the first instance by the Audit Committee (or by the Programme Development Committee in respect of specific programme-related issues). Should the nature and substance of the report so warrant, the report may be taken up again by another appropriate body under a suitable agenda item.
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15. The Unit will, when it deems necessary, introduce its reports to the appropriate committee(s). If it is satisfied with the outcome of the debate, it will not normally introduce the reports concerned at the Executive Board. 16. The WHO Secretariat will submit regularly to the Board status reports concerning the measures taken on implementation of approved recommendations of the Unit. This will normally be done by way of a matrix providing an overview of current status.
ACTION BY THE EXECUTIVE BOARD 17. The Executive Board is invited to endorse the procedures for the future handling of reports of the Joint Inspection Unit proposed in the above paragraphs.
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