IVSA Journals Issue 2 (2015/2016) | Page 16

IVSA at the WHO 138 th session of the Executive Board by Caroline Bulstra
IVSA JOURNAL | Issue 2 16

IVSA at the WHO 138 th session of the Executive Board by Caroline Bulstra

Member of the IVSA Standing Committee on One Health ( SCOH )
Student at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine , Utrecht University , the Netherlands
From 25-29 January 2016 the 138 th session of the Executive Board ( EB ) of the World Health Organization ( WHO ) took place at their headquarters in Geneva , Switzerland . As a veterinary student , and IVSA and SCOH member , I represented our student association at this conference , a great honour !
So what is the EB exactly and what is the main purpose ? The WHO 138 th session of the Executive Board , the EB , is attended by delegations from the 194 UN member states , NGOs in official relations with WHO , and other partners . The Executive Board is composed of 34 members technically qualified in the field of health ; these members are elected for a three-year term . It is the meeting in which the priorities for the upcoming World Health Assembly ( WHA ) are defined , and thereby many of the pressuring global health topics are discussed . The International Pharmaceutical Students ' Federation ( IPSF ) and the International Federation of Medical Students ’ Associations ( IFMSA ) are NGOs that are in official relations with WHO and hence are invited to the EB each year . Last year and this year , the students from IPSF asked us ( IVSA ), together with the World Congress of Chiropractic Students ( WCCS ), to join them .
Our delegation constituted of the following : Ana Catharina Duarte – IPSF Amber Liu – IPSF Renato Nolasco – IPSF Caroline Bulstra – IVSA Damiano Costa – WCCS
The IFMSA delegation consisted of five medical students .
The WHO Director-General Dr . Margaret Chan opened the EB with a report , highlighting the latest developments , events , and achievements in the field of global public health . In her address , she provided an update on the Ebola situation in West Africa , ending with the words “ no one will let this virus take off and run away again ”. Moreover , she expressed her concerns regarding the explosive spread of Zika virus to new geographical areas with little population immunity . A new emergency programme that transforms the way WHO responds to outbreaks and humanitarian crises was described and the implications for health of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ) were discussed . The current refugee crisis was given as an example for several major crises that threaten health worldwide .
According to the member states , the agenda was the most comprehensive one they had seen so far . The EB agenda consisted of 55 agenda items ; subjects varied from disease preparedness , surveillance and response to communicable diseases to noncommunicable diseases to health systems and the WHO reform .
How do the WHO official member states , non-member states and partners contribute to the session of the Executive Board ? The Chair coordinates the session and every agenda item is discussed separately . The member states are the first ones invited to deliver statements , then the non-member states and then the partners ( including IVSA together with IPSF and IFMSA ). By delivering a statement the relevant party can state their position and advise the WHO regarding the discussed topic .
The Chair , Malebona Precious Matsoso , was responsible for the smooth running of the session and had some creative ways to encourage this . She handed out chocolates and sang famous songs in the states ’ own languages when member states ran out of time in delivering their statements . Said Dr . Margaret Chan : “ Chair , you may never know , even with a bracketed text and a comma , how much chairing an EB session can affect WHO ’ s capacity to improve world health ”.
For us , as International Veterinary Students ’ Association , interesting agenda items were the Ebola outbreak evaluation , climate change , the global vaccine action plan and the global action plan on antimicrobial resistance ( AMR ).
Our IVSA Working Group on Policies together with the Executive Committee ( ExCo ) worked hard on preparing statements for this conference and for the WHA in May .
We were proud to be able to deliver a statement on AMR , together with IFMSA and IPSF . This statement stressed the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and applying the One Health approach in addressing antimicrobial resistance . It also emphasized the importance of starting AMR control now in order to be able to cure the next generation by using antimicrobials when there is no other treatment alternative and that , as future healthcare workers , we are key in this .
As a student delegation , we served as a great example of how powerful it can be to join forces and use the diverse and unique knowledge from the different fields in creating solutions to currently excising global public health issues . We were a very enthusiastic and driven team and it was fantastic to be part of that team . The World Health Organization ’ s mandate is " the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health ". As future veterinarians , we can contribute to this mandate by stressing the importance of involving humananimal-environmental health collaboration in addressing the ( veterinary ) public health threats we currently face .
Of course there was also time for fun during this week ! With the delegation we had some great Swiss cheese fondue , spent our lunch breaks at the beautiful WHO rooftop and went out for drinks with the students from IFMSA .
I would like to thank IPSF for inviting IVSA to be part of their delegation and I would like to thank the IVSA ExCo and SCOH for giving me the opportunity to represent our association during the WHO EB , it was an unforgettable experience !
The 69 th World Health Assembly takes place 23-28 May 2016 and here the focus was on the specific health agenda set up by the EB .