jlORID H&.LTH ffiGJlNIZ1~TION
REGIONiJ, OFFICE FOR THE ~;JESTERi PACIFIC \JP /Ie 6/IVdn/3 Rev. 1 14 October 1955
Sixth Sessi on Singapore 13-19 September 1955
ORIGlll'AL:
llNGLI$l
MINUTES OF THE THIRD
hEETn~G
University of Ivlalaya Wednesday, 14 September 1955, at 9:00 a.m. CHiJRMiN:
Dr. R. H. Bland
CCN '!mTS /Speech by Mr. Brian Jones (United Natims and United Nations' Children' B Fund) ,.-speech by Dr. F. i •• C. Oeh1ers (Internatima1 Dental Federation) "Draft Resolution on the Annual Report of the Regional Diroc tor /Draft Resolution on the Distribution of Project Reports /Accanmodation for the WHO Regional Office for the ~lestern Pacific "'Review of the ~pproved Regional Progran me and Budget for 1956 in the light of Present Budgetary Adjustmentsald Consideration of Amendments l'roposed by I'1eIOOer Countries /Proposed Programme and Budget Estimates for 1957
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Rev. 1 Third Meeting
Wednesday, 14 September 1955 at 9:00 a.m, I Representatives of Member States AUSTRALIA Dr. Mr. Dr. Dr. J. T. Gunther C. G. Woodard
CAMBODIA CHINA (TATI-JAN)
Mam-Komsann Leng Pao
Dr. J. Heng Liu Dr. c. H. Yen Dr. T. c. Hsu Dr. M. Demange Dr. Hasayoshi Yamaguchi 'Hr. Takao Matsuo Hr. Akira Saita Hr. Young Kee Kim Dr. Eung Sao Han Dr,. Oudom Souvannavong Dr. Thongphet Dr. J. Bierdrager Dr. H.
FRANCE JAPAN
KOREA
LAOS NETH'i'RLANDS NE.~
ZEALAND
B. Turbott
PHILIPPINES PORTUGAL UNITED KINGDOM
Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Dr. Clemente Gatmaitan Dr. Abel Simoes de Carvalho Dr. R. H. Bland Dr. K. C. Yeo Dr. E. c. Vardy Dr. A. S. Osborne Dr. Richard K. c. Lee Dr. Le van Khai Dr. Nguyen van Hong
UNITED STATF..s VIETNAM
Secretary:
Dr. I. C. Fang, Regional Director
\lIR/RC6/Nin/3 Page 3 II Representatives of the United Nations and FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORG.'UUz.,~TION OF THE UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS ) UNITED lUTIONS CHILDREN 'S FUND ) UNITED NATIONS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE BOARD III Representatives of relations with WHO Non-Go~ernmental
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Spec!a~ized A~encies
Dr. S. S. De Hr. Brian Jones
Sir Alexander MacFarquhar Organization in.official Dr. Narayan C. Sen-Gupta Brigadier D. Bluett Sister W. de Cruz Nurse Jean Woodford Madame
AI"iERICAN COLLEGE OF CHEST PHYSICLiNS INTERNATIONAL Cm1I'HTTE~ OF !{ILITARY MEDICINE AND Pl-L\.RMACY INTERNATIONAL CONMITTEE OF ROMAN CATHOLIC NURSES AND M!'<;DICO-SOCIAL WORK illS INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF NURSES INTERNATIONAL DENTAL FEDF..R.ATION LEAGUE OF RED CROSS SOCIETIES WORLD FEDERATION FOR MENT.AL HEALTH WORLD FED~~TION OF UNITZD NATIONS ASSOCIATIONS IV Others ROCKFELLF..R FOUNDATION SOUTH PACIFIC COMHISSION
Nooi Ah Kuan
Dr. F. A. C. Oehlers Dr. R. H. Bland Dr. H. B. N. Hurphy Mr. P.K. Hernon
Dr. Richmond K. Anderson Dr. Guy Loison
WP/RC6/Min/3 Rev. 1 Page 4 1
SPF..ECH BY MR. BRIAN JONES (UNITF..D NA nONS AND UNITED NATION & :OHILDREN" S FUND) Mr. JONES stated that besides representing UNICEF he had on this
occasion the honour of representing the United Nations on behalf of the Secretar,y-General. The United Nations Economic and Social Council had a deep interest in the work of WHO as an agency dedicated to the task of improving the health and welfare of all peoples, as witnessed by the allocation of Technical Assistance Funds to governments.
UNICEF had a special interest in children but such interest to be effective, must include the health and welfare of mothers and families. It was, therefore, logical for UNICEF to provide supplies to combat disease and arrange for the training of nurses, to provide drugs and establish rural health centres. In the year under review much progress had been made, particularly in . the mass campaigns for which UNICEF had supplied most of the essential imported equipment while WHO had provided guidance and expert personnel as necessary.
Mr. Jones spoke of UNICEF's interest in the establishment of rural-health units which would permit the consolidation of the gains made in the mass campaigns and stated that his Organization hoped before long to assist governments to deal with tuberculosis on a mass'scale, as had been done in the case of yaws and malaria. He further suggested that due prominence be given in the regional documentation to the extent of the financial assistance given by UNICEF to health projects., Governments, WHO and UNICEF had collaborated to bring about successful health programmes, similar collaboration was required in publicising these programmes, giving recognition to the part each plays in the common task. 2
SPEECH BY DR. F. A. C. OEHLERS (INTEtlNATIONAL DENTAL ,FIDERATION) Dr~
OEHLERS expressed his thanks for the privilege of commenting as an
Observer for the International Dental Federation upon the important part now being played by1iHO in the field of dental health. His organization was pleased to learn of the appointment of a dental health officer to the WHO staff and had noted the increased interest in this field in the Western Pacific Region
las a result
WP/RC6/Min/3 Page 5 as a result of the Dental Health Semi.nar held in Wellington, New Zealand in May 1954. Although a number of steps had been taken which constituted Dental services should be available a great advance in the promotion of dental health on an inter-country basis, much still remained to be accomplished. at all l~ternity
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and child welfare centres and there should be a more rapid
extension of the school dental services. WHO could do much to assist in the promotion of workable dental health programmes and the integration of such into other health programmes should be encouraged. include instruction in the dental aspects of health. Health education should
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DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE REGIONAL DffiF1:TOR The following resolution on the Annual Report of the Regional Director
was adopted: "The Regional Committee, Having carefully reviewed the Annual Report of the Regional Director, CONGRATUL\TES the Regional Director on the clear presentation of the report; NOTES with satisfaction the increasing breadth and depth of activities within the Region; EXPRESSfB appreciation of the greater emphasis given to activities benefitting more than one country and the encouragement to inter-country projects; and ADOPTS the report."
4.
DRAFT RESOLUTION ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF PROJECT REPORTS
The Committee considered the follOWing draft resolution submitted by Dr. LE VAN KHAI (Vietnam) which had be6n re-drafted following the discussions during the previous plenary session.
/The Regional Committee
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'The Regional Committee, Recognizing that the distribution of the reports of a Member State or the recommendations of an expert on a project enables all Member States to be informed of the activities of the Organization within the Region; Recognizing that Member States nay derive benefit from the recommendations of experts in carrying out their health programmes; RESOLVFB to send the reports of Member States and the recommendations of an expert to all interested Member States of the Region if the Member State concerned with the report so agrees." The resolution was unanimously approved.
5.
ACCOl1MODATION FOR THE
~iHO
REGIONAL OFFICE FOR THE WESTERN PACIFIC
The Secretary referred the Committee to document WP/RC6/18 which had been distributed to all representatives and stated that he had nothing further to add to the information contained therein. Mr. A. SAlTA (Japan) expressed his appreCiation of the action taken by the Host Government and the Organization in regard to the question of accommodation and suggested that a resolution should be passed by the Committee which might assi~t the Regional Director in his negotiations. Mr. SAlTA then read the proposed resolution to the Committee. On the suggestion of Dr. J. N. RODRIGUEZ (Philippines) it was agreed that copies of the draft resolution should be distributed to all representatives following which the matter could be discussed again. 6. REVl!,}1 OF THE APPROVED RZGION"AL PROGRAMHR AND BUDGET FOR 1956 IN THE LIGHT OF PRESENT BUDGETARY ADJUSTMF.sNlS. AND CONSIDERATION OF AMENDMENTS PROPOSED BY l1EMBER COUNTRIES
Mr. A. SAlTA (Japan) asked the Secretary for a general comment on the TeChnical Assistance programme submitted as he was surprised at the magnitude of the programme and the expansion which had taken place in the past four or five years. If this expansion continued, an increase in the Regional Office stafr appeared necessary. /In replying the
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Page ? In replying the Socretary stated that as far as the regular budget was concerned the amount to be spent in 1956, and possibly 1957, would be greater than in 1955. A3 far as the Technical Assistance programme was He assured the Committee that concerned the Regional Office had no idea until the programne had been approvaL by the Technical Assistance Board. the Regional Office would never be ,P0rmitted to grow so big that it would absorb disportionate amounts of funds from field projects, although very often it "las felt that the office was understaffed. would bo limited as far as possible. staff ~[as
If increasing demands were made
it was only natural to increase the staff but requests for such an increase At the moment it vIas necessary to add a Statistician and Programme Evaluator, the translation and interpretation inadequate and the clerical staff might have to be increased by Requests to the Director-General for four positions in the next year or so. Dr. J. BI:!:RDRAG:~n
any further increases would be limited as far as humanly possible. (Netherlands) said his Government welcomed the appointment of a Statistician and Programme Evaluator. When Resolution WP/RC5/R.4 was passed last year his Government had not anticipated the expansion of activities and it therefore seemed reasonable to reconsider this resolution and move the adoption of a resolution along the following lines: liThe Regional Committee, Having regard to th2 considerable increase of workload of the Regional O"ffice as reported by t.he Regional Director in documont \V:;:/JC6/3,5; Recognizing the necossity of ke3ping a reasonable balance between the composition of the staff of tho Regional Office and the work at hand in order to meet the request of Member Countries in strenr;thening their health services within budgetary limits; Reconsiders Resolution \{P/RC5 .R4.l RESOLVES that in 1956 and in future years the level of staffing and fund allocation for tho Recional Offico should be in accordance with the activities and output of work in every respect; AUTHORISES the Rer:i.onal Director to take action accordingly." It was agreed thllt tho ~)roposed
resolution should be circulated to all
representatives and discussod later. /Dr. H. B. TURBOTT
WP /a:.:6/Min/3
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Page 8 Dr. H. B. TURBOTT (N ew Zealand) referred to the fellowship awarded for virology and stated that as his government had been unable to take upihis fellowship it should perhaps be deleted from the programme. tion and this did not seem to appear in 1956. Part I which should be amended as follows: months' duration in 1956." On the other hand, a request had been submitted for a fellowship in public health administraThe Secretary apologized for an error in the last sentence of paragraph 1, page XII of document 'viP /RC6/5, "The fellowship is for twelve
Mr. A. SArTA (Japan) asked whether it would be permissible to raise questions on the 1955 budget. The Chairman agreed provided the questions raised were relevant to the paper under consideration.
Mr. SArTA then drew attention to the omission in the 1955 budget of the fellowships requested for the National Institute of Health and the National Hygiene Laboratory which should be granted sometime in 1955. assured Mr. SlUTA that his statement would be noted. Dr. OUDOM SOUV.JiNN.il.VONG (Laos) stated that his Government would like to have one expert in serology added to the Treponematoses Control Project in his country. The Secretary stated that the provision of the serologist had been deleted on the advice of the Regional Representative of the Technical Assistance Board but as the money allocated to Laos had not all been used it might be possi.. ble to include this post in the 1956 budget. MacFA~UHAR
The Secretary
Sir ALEX.ANDER
explained that this post had not been included in the country's Such facilities had however been promised by ICA and the Govern-
request because the Government stated that no laboratory facilities were then available. ment had stated that they would now like the post restored. There being no further discussion on this item, the following resolution was adopted: "The Regional Connn1ttee, Having studied the modifications made in the regional programme for 1956 and the action taken in regard to the supplementary list of projects; mtoRSES the action taken in regard to the supplementary list
/O'f
projects; and
WP /rc6/Min/'3 Page 9 of projects; and
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.APPIDVES of the modifications made by the Regional Director in
consultation "('lith governments." ProPOSED PROORa{ME i.ND BUDGET ESTIr.111.TES FOR 1957 This item on the agenda was~introduced
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by the Secretary who gave
a brief outline of the reasons for separating the programme end budget to be financed from regular funds from that to be financed from Technical Assistance funds, and asked the Commi. ttee to examine the document in as detaL led a fashion as possible. The Chairman suggested that the discussion should start with the detailed tables on page 2 of the document (,'JP/RC6/5, Part I).
Mr. A. sarTA (Japan) asked for information on the total money allocated from Headquarters for regional office activities, and was referred to page 1 of the document on which details of the money allocated for the regional office and field activities would be found t the budget was approved, the Regional Office '~J"Ould
If in-
receive p.pproximately TI16
$939,877 of which $239,132 would be for the Regional Office. statutory increments for the staff.
crease in the amounts between 1955 and 1956, and 1957 was to cover the Dr. R. K. C. LEE (United States) expressed approval of the Secretary1s suggestion that the programme and budget should be examined in detail and asked lvhether the Regional Director, when preparing the budget, took any steps to keep it in conformity with available, or expected, funds. In replying the Secretary stated that the budget was usually prepared from January to l1ay during which time governments were approached with regard to their country requests. to the Finance Officer for costing. The requests received were reVery often the total requests viewed by a programme committee in the Regional Office and then passed surpassed the money available ani therefore further negotiations were carried out with governmEnts with a view tv deferr:ing the implementation of some projects to another year. pared showing the ~rojects
A supplementary list was then pre-
which had been requested but not included lin the main
WP /RC6/Min/3. Rev. 1 Page 10 in the main budget. The supplementary list would however be presented
to the Director-General and through him to the Executive Board ani I'forld Health Assembly so that these bodies wouJd be aware that more requests had been received than could be covered by the money allocated. Dr. LEE thanked the Secretary for his explanation and suggested that it might be useful to establish a sub-committee to discuss the propos ed programme and budget in detail as in tr.d. sway it might be easier to handle than in ~
plenary session.
He wondered, however, whether it
might not be too late to do this. tablish such a sub-committee.
Dr. J. T. GUNTHER (Australia) supported
the proposal and stated that in his opinion it was not too late to esDr. H. B. TURBOTT (New Zealand) also He referred in particular to the supported this suggestion as he felt that there were a number of questions on which information was required. fact that the budget did not appear to carry out the wishes of the world Health Assembly and Executive Board and quoted as un example the wish that priorities should be given to environmental sanitation. In 1955 7.3% of the total budget had been assigned to this fteld, in
1956 this had dropped to 6.7%; as far as the percentage of field activities was concerned, 10.4% had gone to environmental sanitation in 1955 and only 9% in 1957. The figure in the budget allocated to inter-country programmes appeared to be stationary, this too was not in accordance with the wishes of the Executive Board or Health ~ssembly.
He therefore
endorsed the suggestion that there should be a close appraisal. The Secretary replied that he would be glad to carry out the wishes
of the Committee but suggested that it might be appropriate to give an opportunity for a short discussion by the Regional COmmittee, in order to provide a guiding line for the sub-committee. representatives might like to make comments. The Chairman stated that the proposal to form a sub-committee would not debar representatives from di3cussing the budget in full plenary session but Suggested that this might be done £ter the sub-committee had submitted its report. /Dr. J. lIDJG LIU (China) Mr. I ... SJuTA (Japan)
supported the proposal of the Secretary and suggested that a number of
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Dr. J. RENG LIU (China) asked the Director-General for his views on the proposal. In reply the Director-General said it. was essential that the Regional Committee study carefully end in detail the proposed programme and budget estimates. Constitutionally, of course, the DirectorGeneral had the final responsibility for the programme and budget proposals of the Organization as a whole which he built up on the proposals submitted by the Regione.l Committee. It was true that the The Executive Eighth World Health Assembly had the Executive Boardts suggestion that his proposals be examined by a small committee. studied by Regional Committees. Board had, however, also urged that regional proposals be carefully Personally, he felt that the suggested small group could well make a detailed study of the proposals which should also be discussed by the Committee as a whole. Dr. J. N. RODRIGUEZ (Philippines) asked whether the sub-committee would be authori~ed
to recommend the deletion of certain items, and He felt that there might be some danger
referred to the fact that the Regional Director had made commitments to the different countries. in that the representatives who were not members of the sub-committee might feel that portions pertaining to their countries might not be fully attended to. The Chairman then invited Dr. C. MhNI, Regional Director for South-East Asia, to report on the experiences in his region. Dr. ¥WU stated that the South-East 1>.sia Regional Committee had had for some years a programme Slb-commi ttee. however, a muoh smaller committee an~
His region, had,
the programme sub-committee .A proper scrutiny
had always been a sub-committee of the whole. regional-committee level.
of the programme and budget was, however, very difficult even at There would always be some hesitation on the part of representatives to criticize each otherts projects. The situation was very fluid and as yet he had not found a satisfactory answer. Dr. H. B. TURBOTT (New Zealand) referred to the finance Committee set up at Executive Board level to examine the programme in detail land stated that
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and stated that this had not prevented the larger body eXamining the programme as a whole. It would fncilitate work if the Co~~ittee
had an
idea of how the priorities were established by the Regional Dir6ctor and why some ideas of the Executive Board did not seem to be apparent in the total progr(:mming. Mr. A. SiJT,A (Japan) stated th~t he was not against the establishment
of a sub-committee but that he would like assurance that after the report had boen received, representatives would have an opportunity of speaking on the item as long as time would permit. Dr. R. K. C. LEE (United States) suggested that if the sub-committee were appointed its membership should not be too big and proposed that there should be only eight members. He further proposed th&t the membership of such a sub-committee might be changed from year to year so that in this way all the representatives of Member Countries in the Region would learn something of the programme and budget. the idea for discussicn. the Chairman. Dr. J. N. RODRIGUEZ (Philippines) suggested that if it were the wish of the Committee to appoint a sub-committee he would propose that it be a small one as otherwise the purpose would bo destroyed, as there was little difference between eight and fourteen. Dr. H. B. TURBOTT (New Zealand) seconded the proposal that a subcommittee should be established, the number of members to be determined by the Chairman. As there were no other COlmnents on the motion, the Chairman stated that in order to get through the programme before the Committee it would be necess~ry
Dr. Lee further stated that
for the record he had not yet proposed a motion but had merely sUbmitted He would, however, now like to propose the immediate appointment of a sub-committee, the size to be detennined by
for th0 members appointed to the sub-committee to be absent He then asked that a vote be taken on
from the Technical Discussions. one against and two abstontions.
the motion by show of hands: there were eleven representatives in favour, The Chci man then appointed the following representatj.es to the /sub-committee: China,
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sub-committee: and Vietn~,
China, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines
and stated that he would take the Chair.
As there were no objections to the above suggestion, it was agreed that the sub-committee with the above membership should meet at 2:30
p.m. The Committee adjourned at 12:15 p.m.