9–13 October 2017 Brisbane, Australia WPR/RC68/DJ/2 10 October 2017
Contents I. II. III. Programme of work Report of meetings Other meetings …………………………………………………………………... 2 …………………………………………………………………... 2 …………………………………………………………………... 6
Other information Venue Plaza Ballroom, Plaza Level, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC). All documents are included on a USB flash drive provided to all representatives in their conference bag upon arrival. In line with WHO green meeting practices, printed copies are available only upon request at the WHO Enquiry Desk, located at the Plaza Ballroom Concourse. Representatives are kindly requested to collect daily their documents, messages and invitations at their designated mailboxes. Rapporteurs meeting Internet access The meeting will be held daily (Monday to Thursday) following the afternoon session, in Board Room 1 at 17:15. Wireless Internet access is available throughout the BCEC. The network name and password can be obtained from the WHO Enquiry Desk in the Plaza Ballroom Concourse. An Internet cafe is located in the Plaza Ballroom Foyer. For assistance, please contact the computer support staff at the Internet cafe. WHO publications Publications related to the agenda of the Regional Committee are on display in the Plaza Ballroom Concourse. A digital publications catalogue is contained on a USB flash drive provided to all representatives. Please ensure your ID card is displayed at all times while inside the premises. Kindly contact the WHO Conference and Administrative Services Officer, Ms Nguyen Thi Minh Ly, with any concerns at +63 920 963 5457 (Philippines mobile). WHO has a no-smoking policy for all meetings and related functions.
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I. PROGRAMME OF WORK (TUESDAY, 10 OCTOBER 2017) Agenda items 4 9 10 Agenda items 11 12 08:30–12:00 Address by the incoming Chairperson Measles and rubella elimination Protecting children from the harmful impact of food marketing 14:00–17:00 Health promotion in the Sustainable Development Goals Triple elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis WPR/RC68/6 WPR/RC68/7 WPR/RC68/4 WPR/RC68/5
II. REPORT OF MEETINGS (MONDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2017) First meeting Outgoing Chairperson: Honourable Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, Minister of Health Ministry of Health, Malaysia Incoming Chairperson: Ms Glenys Beauchamp, Secretary Australian Government Department of Health Item 1 Opening of the session The Opening Ceremony at the Plaza Auditorium of Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre included a cultural presentation and addresses by the Australian Minister for Health and Minister for Sport, the WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific and the outgoing Chairperson of the Regional Committee. Following the Opening Ceremony, the outgoing Chairperson declared open the sixty-eighth session of the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific. Item 2 Address by the outgoing Chairperson The outgoing Chairperson, Honourable Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam, thanked the Regional Committee for the honour of having been chosen to chair its sixty-seventh session in Manila. He thanked the Government of Australia for its extraordinary reception in welcoming representatives to the current session. He reviewed significant public health developments since last year's session of the Regional Committee and urged Member States to keep in mind the noble goal that brought Member State representatives to Brisbane: to advance the health and well-being of countries of this vast and diverse Region. Item 3 Election of new officers: Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and Rapporteurs The Regional Committee elected the following officers: Chairperson: Ms Glenys Beauchamp, Secretary Australian Government Department of Health Sixty-eighth session of the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific • 9–13 October 2017, Brisbane, Australia Page 2
Vice-Chairperson: Honourable Tautai Kaitu'U, Minister for Health and Medical Services, Solomon Islands Rapporteurs: In English: Dr Caroline McElnay, Director, Public Health Ministry of Health, New Zealand In French: Dr Jean-Paul Grangeon, Medical Inspector and Deputy Director of Health and Social Affairs, New Caledonia Item 5 Adoption of the agenda There being no objections, the provisional agenda was adopted by the Regional Committee (WPR/RC68/1). Item 7 Address by and Report of the Regional Director The Regional Director presented his report to the Regional Committee, highlighting the work of WHO in the Western Pacific Region from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017. He said organizational reforms and new ways of working established in the Region in recent years are well aligned with the strategic thrust of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 3 on health and wellbeing. He highlighted three areas of focus in the Region that had led to important achievements: (1) efforts to build mechanisms that work across sectors and societies to address the determinants of health; (2) a strengthened focus on partnerships that produce measurable results at the country level; and (3) concrete steps to ensure that Member States work together to safeguard global health security. In closing, the Regional Director thanked the Regional Committee for its guidance and support. He said it has been a privilege to lead the Organization during a time of significant reform and achievement in the Western Pacific Region. He further said that the Region’s focus on “keeping countries at the centre” had guided those organizational reforms and had led to measureable results at the country level. Finally, the Regional Director pledged that during the final year and a half of his term, he and his staff will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that no one is left behind in efforts to improve the health and well-being of the nearly 1.9 billion people of the Western Pacific Region. Interventions were made by representatives of the following Member States (in order): China, Cook Islands, Samoa, Singapore, Cambodia, Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Australia, Viet Nam, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The Regional Director responded by thanking Member States for their support and encouragement over the past year. He said the more than 600 WHO staff members in the Regional Office for the Western Pacific and the WHO country offices will continue to keep countries at the centre of their work, strengthening collaboration and cooperation with Member States. Responding to specific interventions, the Regional Director said he appreciated the enthusiasm Member States have shown for Joint External Evaluations (JEEs), which help provide momentum for advancing core capacities under the International Health Regulations (2005) and are in line with the Asia Pacific Strategy for Emerging Diseases and Public Health Emergencies . He said JEEs have helped identify programme areas that must be strengthened. The Regional Director said that as a former professor of public health he appreciated the comments about the need to build the next generation of public health leaders. He called attention to a programme in the Regional Office that Sixty-eighth session of the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific • 9–13 October 2017, Brisbane, Australia Page 3
brings in young staff members from ministries of health in the Region and provides courses in English and public health training. He said graduates of this programme are taking on increasingly important roles in their ministries. The Regional Director also said that the Regional Office has been active in cooperation with other WHO regions, particularly the South-East Asia Region. He mentioned the recent mission he and other members of management and staff made to the WHO African Region to share best practices. He also told representatives about training in programme management offered at the Regional Office in Manila to staff from the WHO African Region. The Regional Director noted that the Director-General would be addressing the Regional Committee later this week. He said WHO should expect organizational changes in the coming years with the change in leadership. Item 8 Programme budget 2016–2017: budget performance (interim report) The Director, Programme Management, presented document WPR/RC68/3 on the interim report of budget performance for the biennium 2016 –2017. He said that the WHO Programme Budget 2016–2017 is the second of three biennial budgets to be formulated under the Twelfth General Programme of Work 2014–2019. He said the originally approved Programme Budget 2016–2017 for the Western Pacific Region was US$ 285.6 million. He noted that there was a net increase in the Programme Budget ceiling of US$ 6.2 million, resulting in the current working allocation of US$ 291.8 million. The Director, Programme Management, said the total funds available from all sources amounted to US$ 231.2 million. He said a total 74.9% of available resources was utilized during 2016–2017 versus 69.5% in the same period of the previous biennium. He further noted the internal audits that were performed in the WHO country offices in Cambodia and Papua New Guinea during 2016–2017, adding that all audit recommendations had been implemented and audit reports closed. The Director, Programme Management, highlighted efforts to strengthen accountability, transparency and risk management in the Region, such as the establishment of the Western Pacific Region Accountability Advisory Group. He also highlighted the Secretariat’s improved controls through strengthened management, training, communications and the monitoring of potential high-risk transaction areas, particularly on donor reporting, goods and services procurement, and Direct Financial Cooperation (DFC) contracts; there are no overdue donor or DFC reports in the Region. In terms of staff performance management, he said, the Region was the only one to have achieved 100% compliance on the timely submission of the Performance Management and Development System evaluations. The Director, Programme Management, concluded by noting that the Region has experienced reductions in funding over the past two biennia. Despite this, he said 85 out of 89 total programme outputs are on track. Interventions were made by representatives of the following Member States (in order): the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Australia, China, Japan, Viet Nam, the United States of America and New Zealand.
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The Director, Programme Management, thanked the representatives for their interventions. In response to concerns expressed by several Member States, the Director, Programme Management, explained the reasons for the low availability or gap in resources in the Region: 1) an increase in the Region’s envelope; 2) a smaller distribution of core voluntary contributions due to the Organization as a whole mobilizing fewer resources; and 3) a reduction in specified voluntary contributions as countries in the Region transition from lower- to middle-income status, with donors withdrawing or changing funding policies. He added that the reduction in core voluntary contributions is largely the reason that four programme outputs are not on track. He noted that the Organization would still continue to try to do its best in those areas. One of those outputs – gender – is now being approached by having all programmes contribute to the output rather than creating a specific project. He said the Regional Office is coping with reduced availability of resources in two ways: by mobilizing resources and by increasing efficiency and effectiveness. The Region, he noted, is cooperating with headquarters and other WHO regions in global resource mobilization efforts, as well as an expansion of the donor base at all levels. The Director, Programme Management, said efficiency and effectiveness are being improved through prioritization of high-impact activities and monitoring implementation through monthly Programme Committee meetings and the Programme Management Officer network. This approach helps to manage the risks created by anticipated decreases in voluntary contributions. Improvements in efficiency include significant cost savings realized by using video conferences, rather than face-to-face meetings to develop regional action plans on the agenda. The Director, Administration and Finance, emphasized the serious attention afforded issues of programme implementation, staffing and other activities to continuously improve performance. On the issue of gender, he said that in 2010 some 32% of professional staff in the Region was female, while today it is 46%. More than 50% of the Regional Director’s Cabinet is female, he added. In terms of geographical balance, the Director, Administration and Finance, said more than 50% of professional staff in the Region is from outside the Region, which helps bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the Region. He said targeted workshops for Member States that are unrepresented or under-represented on staff have been conducted, with one planned for the Pacific to help people apply for positions. He concluded by saying the Region uses its networks of WHO representatives and country liaison officers, programme managers and country office staff to stay in regular communication in an effort to improve all areas of operations. The Regional Director concluded by thanking Member States for their interventions. He noted that the substantial reduction of funding stems from World Health Assembly decisions. Difficulties began when the World Health Assembly combined assessed and voluntary contributions and decisions on the distribution of assessed and core voluntary contributions were made at headquarters. He mentioned that 47% of costs in the Region are associated with human resources, as the Organization tries to attract the best possible staff. He concluded by saying the new Director-General will introduce new management concepts that will impact work in all regions.
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III. OTHER MEETINGS Tuesday, 10 October 2017 12:45–13:45 Health sector roles in supporting road safety: Room M3, Mezzanine Level
Wednesday, 11 October 2017 12:45–13:45 17:15–onwards Poliomyelitis: Room M3, Mezzanine Level Private informal consultation with Member States (Caucus) Plaza Ballroom, Plaza Level Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (following the private informal consultation with Member States) Plaza Ballroom, Plaza Level Thursday, 12 October 2017 12:45–13:45 WHO's work in countries Plaza Ballroom, Plaza Level
Friday, 13 October 2017 12:45–13:45 Responding to the need for specialized tertiary care in small island states Room M3, Mezzanine Level
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