The Fifty-seventh Meeting of the Regional Director with the WHO Representatives, Remarks and Statement of appreciation at the concluding session, 28 November - 3 December 2005, WHO/SEARO, New Delhi, India

Remarks and statement of appreciation By Dr Samlee Plianbangchang Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region at The concluding session of the Fifty-seventh Meeting of the Regional Director with the WHO Representatives WHO/SEARO, India 28 November – 3 December 2005 The Fifty-seventh Meeting of the Regional Director with the WHO Representatives 28 November – 3 December 2005 WHO/SEARO, New Delhi REMARKS AND STATEMENT OF APPRECIATION AT THE CONCLUDING SESSION BY DR SAMLEE PLIANBANGCHANG REGIONAL DIRECTOR, WHO SOUTH-EAST ASIA WHO Representatives, WHO/SEARO staff members, Ladies and gentlemen. We have just completed five and a half days of intensive discussions on a wide range of issues. I want to thank the WRs for their full-time participation throughout; and the Regional Office staff for their attention and active participation during the meeting. In addition, I would like to place on record our appreciation of the contribution of Dr Paolo Hartmann from Headquarters. We hope that he will continue to provide support to our Region from the global level. The reports by the WRs reemphasized the different conditions faced in each country office. We must continue to implement region-wide policies, yet consider the special conditions in each country. 2 This meeting has shown the large amount of information that needs to be exchanged between the WHO Country Offices and the Regional Office. This applies to both technical and administrative areas.We need to continually streamline our processes to improve communications between the two levels, both in our meetings with WRs and through day-to-day work on a regular basis. The delegation of authority to country offices has increased responsibilities of the WRs. The Regional Office will continue to support the WRs in their implementation of this delegated authority and in ensuring adequate accountability. We all appreciate the comments and suggestions made by Directors and other the Regional Office staff members during this meeting. I have continued emphasizing that the major priority of the Regional Office staff is to support our work in countries. We must continue taking all steps to ensure that Regional Office support is really relevant and effective. Multicountry Activities or MCAs are a new and innovative approach to support work between/among countries; and promote the potential benefit of our countries working together to solve their common problems. We have discussed and realized that several steps are still required to plan and implement MCAs in an effective manner. I expect that the Regional Office staff members and WRs will follow this up without delay. 3 New financial procedures and changes in administrative processes require our priority attention and follow-up. I am asking the Regional Office staff members to continue ensuring understanding and compliance with the established rules and procedures. However, flexibility will have to be appropriately exercised in the process of our work, if it is required. Before concluding, I would like to once again thank all our WR colleagues for their efforts in taking forward and strengthening WHO’s collaborative activities in their respective countries. As I have often mentioned, WHO’s main function is to support its Member Sta tes in their health development activities. It is here that the role of WRs assumes an utmost importance, as far as health is concerned. I am happy that our WRs have played their role so well. I look forward to the accelerated efforts to further strengthen WHO capacity in countries. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Dr Eigil Sorensen for his very commendable contributions as the WR DPR Korea. He was the first WR in DPR Korea and helped to set the tone for our future collaborative activities.As you may be aware, Dr Sorensen will be reassigned as WR Papua New Guinea, and I would like to wish him all the best in his new assignment. I would also like to take the opportunity of thanking Dr Brent Burkholder, who is returning to CDC, Atlanta. Dr Burkholder’s leadership in steering the immunization programme in the Region has been laudable indeed. I am sure he can be justifiably proud of the progress made in this area over the past few years. I wish him all success in his new assignment. 4 I would like to thank all of us once again for full participation in this meeting; and the suggestions on how we might improve this meeting in the future. We will continue to try to make the meeting as effective as possible to benefit WHO’s work in the Region. We will now meet during the meeting of the CCPDM in June 2006. The meeting of the Regional Director with WRs in November 2006 will be on similar lines with source modification. I am confident that the Regional Office will be able to come up with a more efficient and effective agenda and programme. We will arrange a special session during the meeting to ensure that we have adequate time to discuss the follow up of the key issues we have raised during this meeting. Finally, I would like to wish you all a safe trip back to your countries, and an enjoyable holiday season later this month. Thank you.