Item 3. Nomination of the Director-General

Only one nomination, that of Dr Margaret Chan, had been received by the deadline, Nov 15, 2011.  
See: Election of Director-General - 2012 on WHO site.

3.1 Nomination for the post (Document EB130/INF.DOC./1)

This is a note prepared by WHO's Legal Counsel on the procedures for recruiting and selecting a new DG.  It refers to the various regulatory decisions taken by WHO in the past regarding the appointment of a new DG.  

• 4 July 2011: Current DG writes to all member states inviting them to consider nominating someone for the position of DG
• 15 Nov 2011: Deadline for nominations.
• 15 December 2011 (or earlier): Nominations translated and distributed to members of EB
• Four stages during the EB: screening, shortlisting, interviewing, voting (largely formalism in view of there being only one nomination. 

3.2 Draft contract (Document EB130/3)

Largely procedural. 

Watchers' notes of EB procedures

Dr Margaret Chan was nominated by the Executive Board for a second term as Director-General of the Organisation. This nomination will be submitted for approval to the Sixty-fifth World Health Assembly in May 2012. The first part of this session was not open to NGOs.

When the session was opened again, Dr Chan took the floor thanking the Board for their confidence and support. She stated that the work in public health is never done, with the exception of disease eradication, and reaffirmed her commitment by saying: “First time I promised to work tirelessly. I have done so. [...] I will work even harder to ensure everyone reaches the highest attainable status of health”.  All Member States expressed their appreciation and congratulated Dr Chan for the nomination.  

However, it has to be mentioned that no other candidates were proposed for the DG position and this situation leaves room for some considerations about the impact of geopolitics on the Organisation management.