Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence has been nominated to be a
member of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Executive Board at
next year’s World Health Assembly in 2019. The life of this new
Executive Board will commence in April 2019.
This was announced at a Regional Committee meeting for the Americas
being hosted by WHO in Washington DC. Minister Lawrence is attending
this meeting in her capacity as Guyana’s Public Health Minister. The
engagement runs from September 23 to 27, 2018.
Minister Lawrence will serve a term of three years from 2020 to 2022.
The board on which the minister has been nominated to serve plays a
significant role in meetings at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The
board usually gives effect to the decisions and policies of the Health
Assembly, advises it and generally facilitates its work
The Executive Board is composed of 34 technically qualified elected
members. The annual Board meeting is held in January when the members
agree upon the agenda for the World Health Assembly and the
resolutions to be considered by the Health Assembly. A follow-up
meeting to the Health Assembly takes place in May.
The main meeting of the board, at which the agenda for the forthcoming
Health Assembly is agreed upon and resolutions for forwarding to the
Health Assembly are adopted, is held in January, with a second shorter
meeting in May, immediately after the Health Assembly, for more
administrative matters.
The World Health Assembly considers reports of the Executive Board,
which it instructs in regard to matters on which further action,
study, investigation or report may be required. Since WHA is the
supreme decision-making body for the WHO, this gathering oversees the
appointment of the Director-General, supervises the financial policies
of the Organisation, and reviews and approves the proposed programme
budget.
Minister Lawrence has also been nominated to serve on the Latin
American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences, also known by its
original name Regional Library of Medicine (BIREME, acronym in
Portuguese), in Brazil. This appointment is for a period of two years.