(WPR/RC20/SR/l)
SUMMARY RECORD OF 'llIE FIRS!' MEEl'ING WHO Conference Hall
Tuesday, 23 September 1969 at 9.00 a.m. CHAIRMAN:
later:
Dr C.S. Gatmaitan (Ph1l1ppines) Moo.ecin-General J. Rondet (France)
CONTENTS
1
Formal open1ng of the twentieth session of the Regional Committee and address by retiring Cha.iI1DWl •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
107
2
Address by the Representative of the Director-General ............................ If • • • • • • • • • • • • •
loB 112
3 4
Election of new officers: Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Rapporteurs ..................•...•....•. Address by incoming Cha1:nnan ..................•..•.•••..••
113
5 6
Adopt! on
0
f the agenda ...............•....................
113 113
Statement by the Chairman of the Techn1cal Discussions ...............................................
3-
7 8
Establishment of the Sub-Committee on Progr8ll'lDe arld Budget •••.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
114
Acknowledgement by the Chairman of brief reports received from governments on the progress of their health activities ........ ".".............................. 114
9
Armouncentents ............................................................. .
115
-103-
104
REGIONAL COMMITl'EE; 'lWENTIEI'H SESSION
First Meeting Tuesday, 23 September 1969 at 9.00 a.m. PRESENT
I.
Representatives of Member States AUSTRALIA J.S. Boxall R.T. Taureka Mr P.W. Carroll Dr Dr Dr Dr
CAMBODIA CHINA
Phav Sany
C.K. Chang Dr T.Y. Lee Dr Y. Hsi 1..U1g
FRANCE JAPAN
Medecin-General J. Rondet Medecin-Colone1 E. Po yet Dr K. I. Mr M. 'Dr M. MI" N. Dr
Kanamitsu Shigematsu Yamasaki Oike Maekawa
IAOS MAIAYSIA
Dr Phouy S1..U1thorn Dr Thongphet Phetsiriseng Dr Raja Ahmad Noordin Dr Abdul Khalid bih Saban Dr C.O. Innis Dr W. Murphy Dr C.S. Gatmaitan Dr A.N. Acosta Dr J. Valera Dr L. Carlota Dr G. Balbin Dr T. Gomez Dr P. Rigonan Dr Diego Hora Silva Ferreira
N&l ZFAIAND
PHILIPPINES
PORTUGAL
SUMMARY RECORD OF THE FIRST MEETING
105
REPUBLIC OF KOREA UNITED KINGDOM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Dr Sung-Hee Rhee Mr Sae-Hoon Ahn Dr C.H. Gurd Miss H. Upton Dr R.K.C. Lee Dr J.L. Stockard Dr J.P. Keeve Dr Truong Minh Cac Dr Dang Quoc Phu
VIET-NAM WESTERN SAMOA
Dr J .C. Thieme
II.
Representatives of the United Nations and Specialized Agencies UNITED NATIONS AND UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND UNITED NATIONS DEVElOPMENT PROGRAMME Mr A.E. Meager Mr A.J. Joseph
III. Representatives of other intergovernmental organizations INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF MILITARY MEDICINE AND PHARMACY SOUTH PACIFIC COMMISSION Brigadier General E.S. Filart, MC Dr G. Loison
IV. ,II'
Representatives of
non-~overnmental or~anizations
IJ
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ALCOHOL AND ADDICTIONS INTERNATIONAL DENTAL FEDERATION INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR HEALTH EDUCATION 'lEE e-~
Dr R. Seaborn Dr B. Barbers Dr F. Herrera
ltlORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, INC.
Dr A.Z. Romualdez
106
REGIONAL COMMI'ITEE: TWENTIETH SESSION
WORLD FEDERATION FOR MEN'mL HFALTH INTERNATIONAL COMMI'ITEE OF CATHOLIC NURSES INTERNATIONAL UNION OF NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES WORLD FEDERATION OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS INTERNA TIONAL PUNNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION
Dr E. Aldaba-Lim
Mrs M. Ordonez Dr C. Ll. Intengan Mrs C.M. Abad Professor S. Matsumoto Dr R. Apelo "
LEAGUE OF RED CROSS SOCIETIES
Dr V. Galvez
V.
WHO Secretariat ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL SECRETARY
Mr M.P. Siegel Dr Francisco J. Dy Regional Director
..
SUMMARY RECORD OF THE FIRST MEETING
197
I
FORMAL OPENING OF THE 'l"WENTIEI'H SESSION OF THE REGIONAL COMMITTEE AND ADDRESS BY REl'IRING CHAIRMAN: Items 1 and 2 of the Provisional Agenda Dr GATMAITAN, retiring Chairman, formally opened the meeting. He referred to the statement which he had made a year ago that
the va.rious epidemiological me-thods for the identification of the means of spread and the control or eradication of communicable disease in the Region should be reviewed jointly by countries, and that governments, leaders, health administrators, and others should analyze whether they had done their share in improving the state of health and sanitation in accordance with the standards set by WHO. This would meru1 mal{ing an inventory of the number of properly equipped health and medical facilities and of the staff that medical, nursing, paramedical and postgraduate schools could turn out yearly for preventive and curative work, and of determining whether sufficient funds had been allocated to the various fields of health. questions. He had had the privilege of representing his country at the Twenty-second World Health Assemhlyheld' in Boston.- Many important items had been discussed il1 depth, including- a review of the strategy of malaria eradication, fluoridation and dental health, quality control of drugs, diseases under surve:l.nance,-medicaleducation, and population dynamics. He was happy to note that many of these topics were listed on the agenda of. the Regional. Committee, also that filariasis control, the epidemiology and prevention of aCCidents, as well as training of national health persormel, had been included .. He was confident that the dis,cussions during the t\'rentieth session of the Committee would be as interesting as those held last year .a.'1d would result in bringing the countries in the Region closer together in their efforts to prevent disease, treat the sick and promote health throughol<t the Region. .
A year had passed since he fo~d
~d
made this
statement and he hoped that representatives had
answers to these
108
2
ADDRESS BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL: Item 3 of the Provisional Agenda Mr SIEGEL, Assistant Director-General, said that he had the
privilege and honour this year of representing the Director-General at the meeting of the Regional Committee. This was his first experience in this capacity in this Region but, with familiar faces around, he felt that he had friends on the Committee who were sympathetic to the work and the objectives of WHO. As was well known by many of the representatives present, he had been involved in the development of the programme and budget of the Organization and was therefore likely to speak further when this subject was considered in detail later in the session. The Director-General studied the results of the sessions of all Regional Committees and welcomed their advice and recommendations on any aspect of the work in their Regions, particularly on the annual programme and budget estimates, in this case, for 1971.
Mr Siegel
paid tribute to the useful work emerging from the sessions of the Regional Committee over the years and to the work of the Regional Director and his staff. The Director-General had delegated a considerable amount of authority and responsibility to each of the six regional offices, the philosophy of decentralization baving been incorporated in the WHO Constitution. In this respect, WHO ~/as
unique among the
organizations comprising the system of United Nations organizations. Mr Siegel drew attention to a particularly interesting development that had taken place since the recent opening of the United Nations General Assembly. Many speakers had indicated that the stage had been reached, after more than twenty years (it was actually twenty-four years since the Charter of the United Nations was approved in San Francisco) where it had become necessary to take a new look at the structure created in the post-war world and to review the Charter of the United Nations with particular emphasis on its responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security. Reference also had been
SUMMARY RECORD OF THE FIRST MEETING
109
made to reviewing the functions of the Economic and Social CounciL These sllggestions for a review of the United Nations Charter are not new. as similar suggestions had been mentioned at a number of the recent sessions of the General Assembly. For its part. WHO felt that one must always take a look at the current circumstances. see what 1'IOrk was being carried out and take whatever remedial action was necessary in order to make such improvements as were required. He hoped that should there be a review of the United Nations Charter or any other review of structure and machinery they would take into consideration ~~e
important decision taken. in developing
the Charter of the United Nations. to separate the political responsibilities of the United Nations from technical responsibilities in the field of economic and social development. the latter having been assigned to the Specialized AgenCies, including WHO. This decision was important as it meant that each of the Specialized Agencies was autonomous and independent and could thus carry out its responsibilities without being inhibited or encumbered by political responsilities. Political responsibilities were appropriately considered at ~~e
one forum only - i.e., work of vIHO. \~'HO
United Nations - and had no place in the It h9.d
owed the United Nations a vote of thanks.
a responsibility to bear this" always in mind - to do everything possible to assist the United Nations in carrying out its responsibilities. He then referred to the resolutions \,Ihich had been adopted by the Twenty-second World Health Assembly in Boston in July this year and to which"attention had been called because they were of regional interest. He mentioned particularly resolution WHA22.53. which dealt The Director-General had with long-term planning in the field of health, biennial programming and improvement of the evaluation process. proposed to the Executive Board in February this year the development of a programme and budget information system which was intended to meet a number of requests made by governments as well as provide
110
REGIONAL COMMITTEE: 'IWENTIETH SESSION
improved management infol1l1ation for the use of the Secretariat.
At
its nineteenth session, the Regional Coonni ttee for the It/estern Pacific had requested the Regional Director to supply the type of information which would, fl~m
now on, be normally provided routinely as part of ~lenty
the programme and budget information system approved by the second World Health Assembly.
The Regional Director had complied
with this request and there was now documentation providing information related to changes in the prograonne wld budget estimates for the two years, 1969 and 1970. Mr Siegel complimented the Regional Here Coonnittee on the initiative it had taken in this direction. again, he referred to the policy to delegate authority to the Regional Directors. Considerable flexibility also was given so that This changes could be made in the programme to meet the needs .and changing requirements of the countries requesting assistance from WHO. flexibili ty had always been considered an important feature of vIHO' s programme of assistance and was one of the major contributing features that enabled the Organization to meet these needs. Mr Siegel noted with concern that the percentages of the resources available to the Organization other than the regular budget, particularly those from the United Nations Development Programme, were decreasing in alarming proportions. This made it exceedingly important that the regular budget of the World Health Organization be increased suffiCiently to enable the Organization to meet the needs of Member States requesting assistance. Wi th reference to the development of the next Programme of t'iork of the Organization, he referred to four paints to whicn the DirectorGeneral gave considerable importance.
,.
(1) of WHO; (2)
establishment of a functional relationship between existing
or future national health plans in the new General Programme of Ivork
consideration of the following major programme activities breakdo\~s
as suitable
during the consultations with regional office
SUMMARY RECORD OF THE FIRST MEETING
III
staff and th<! WHO Representatives in the preparation of the new General Programme of Work, which included communicable disease control; environmental health; strengthening of health services; national health planning; maternal and child health; education and training, including manpower studies; nutrition; and control of noncommunicable diseases;
(3) feasibility of bringing out trends in the above-mentioned major programme activities which would help in Situating the fields in which WHO assistance would be required considering other sources of aSSistance; (4)
feasibility of aggregating these trends into regional
plans.
\tm:o "las engaged fully in improving all aspects of planning and management. ~le
It had embarked on a concerted effort to develop for
benefit of the use of the Secretariat all the new information
available which would assist in optimizing the use of the new knO\';ledge which is available with regard to modern management techniques. It hoped to take advantage to the fullest extent possible of all of the new management sciences, including computer technology, but n()t limited to computers since they did not represent the sole answer to all problems. of microform. Use would be made of a nmnber of new management techWHO knel'l that governments expected the Organization to niques, such as operational research, network analysis and all aspects be as efficient as possible and this was among the objectives of the Director-General not only at headquarters but with regard to the six regional offices of the Organization. It was also hoped to assist national health administrations to make use of the new management sciences by taking advantage of information available with regard to the application of' some of these techniques whenever and wherever appropriate. This involved the development of national health plans These improvements would mean years of patient work where they did not exist and the improvement of national health plans where they did.
112
REGIONAL COMMITl'EE: 'IWENTIETH SESSION
and would include the necessity to provide for the necessary education ,and training of the staff involved. Many schools of public health were incorporating in their curricula for public health training a number of very important aspects of planning and management. This recognition of tile importance of the use of management tools and technology in carrying out public health work would surely be beneficial to ministries of health. As .the Representative of the Director-General, he hoped that he could be of assistance during the session of the Regional Committee. He was at the disposal of the Regional Committee to provide any information which was available to him and would be glad to reply to any questions. He once again wished to convey the good wishes of the DirectorGeneral for the success of the twentieth session of the Regional Commi ttee for the 1tlestern Pacific Region and hoped that its deliberations and decisions would contribute to progress toward improved heal th and peace in the \1estern Pacific Region and in the world as a whole.
3
ELECTION OF NEVI OFFICERS: C'rlAIRMAN, VICE-CHAIRMAN AND RAPPORThlJRS: Item 4 of the Provisional Agenda Election of Chairman Dr THIEME (Vlestern Samoa) nominated Medecin-General RONDEI' (France)
3.1
as Chairman; Decision: 3.2
this ~'{as seconded by Dr BOXALL (Australia). Medecin-General RONDEI' was unanimously elected.
Election of Vice-Chairman Dr MURPHY (New Zealand) nominated Dr PHOUY SUNTHORN (Laos) as
Vice-Chairman; Decision:
this was seconded by Dr RHEE (Republic of Korea). Dr PHOUY SUNTHORN l',as unanimously elected.
SUMMAiY RECORD OF '!HE FIRST MEETING
113
3.3 Election of Rapporteurs Dr KANAMITSU (Japan) nominated Dr GURD (United Kingdom) as Rapporteur for the English language; (Malaysia). Dr GATMAITAN (Phili ppines) nomina ted Dr FERREIRA (Portugal) as Rapporteur for the French language; (China). Decision: 4 Dr GURD and Dr FERREIRA were unanimously elected. Item 5 of the Provisional Agenda this was seconded by Dr CHANG this was seconded by Dr NOORDIN
ADDRESS BY INCOMING CHAIRMAN:
The CHAIRMAN requested that his address should be postponed until Wednesday morning.
5
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA: (Document WPR/RC20/l)
Item 6 of the Provisional Agenda
The CHAIRMAN moved the adoption of the agenda.
Decision: In the absence of any comments, the agenda was adopted.
6
STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE TECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS: of the Agenda
Item 7
The CHAIRMAN announced that, in accordance with the resolution ;-
adopted by the Regional Committee at its eleventh session, the Regional Director, in consultation with the Chairman of the Regional Committee, had selected Dr I. Shigematsu, Chief, Department of Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health, Tokyo, Japan, as Chairman of the Technical Discussions. He then invited Dr Shigematsu to speak.
Dr SHIGEMATSU (Japan) said that it was a great honour for him to have been appointed Chairman of the Technical Discussions. The
114
BEGIONAL· CM'il'l'ru: 'lWE!lrIB'l'HSESSICl'l
topio "The Planning and Organization of a National Epidem1ologioal Service" was a ohallenging one. meeting; There would be three sessl10ns in all: the afternoon of Friday, 26 September, which would consist of a plenary Saturday morning, Z7 September, when group discussions would 'lbree working papers (For consideration be held; and Monday morning, 29 September, when the draft report of the Technical Discussions would be discussed. had been distributed as a basis for discussion. section 3.)
of the report of the Teohnioal Disoussions, see the seventh meeting,
7
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SUB-CCf.1MI'lTEE ON PROGRAMME AND BtJDGEl': Item 8.1 of the Agenda
In accordance with the principle of rotation, it was agreed that the membership should be composed of the Representatives of Australia, China, France (Chairman), Japan, New Zealand, the RepubUo of Korea, Republic of Viet-Nam and. the United Kingdom. It was also agreed that the Sub-Committee would meet at 2.30 p.m. on Thursday, 25 September, and that if necessary, discussions would oontinue on Friday morning. (For consideration of the report of the Sub-Committee, see the sixth meeting, section 2.)
8
ACKNGlLEDG.l!NENT BY THE CHAIRMAN OF BRIEF REPORTS RECEIVED FROO GOVERNMENTS ON '!HE PROGRESS OF SIR HEAL'lH Aat'IVITIES: Item 9 of the Agenda The CHAIRMAN acknowledged reports on the progress of health
aotivities reoeived from the following countries and territories: Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Hong Kong, Japan, laos, Malaysia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Philippines and Timor. He stated that special reports on the outbreak of cholera in Hong Kong in July 1969, and on the illlllUI11zation programme in Singapore in
1968
had also been received.
(For further
reports acknowledged, see the second meeting, section L)
SUMMAhY RECORD OF THE FIRST MEETING
115/116
9
ANNOUNCEMENTS
The CHAIRMAN suggested that the Committee should follow its usual practice to meet from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon, with a short recess at about 10.30 a.m. and from 2.30 to 5.00 with a short recess -_.......-.
at about 4.00 p.m., subject to the proviso that these times could be altered if the progress of work required. It was so agreed.
The meeting rose at 10.05 a.m.
>-
.-