PHA-Exchange> Lancet debate on election of who-DG

[Aviva]

From: "DBanerjee" <nhpp at bol.net.in>
>
> Debabar Banerji
> Emeritus Professor JNU,
> B-43, Panchsheel Enclave,
> New Delhi 110017
> Ph 011 6490851
>
> October 17 2002
>                                                 Election of WHO DG

> Dr Gro Harlem Bruntland has announced her decision not to seek a second
term
> for the office of the DG, WHO at a time when that organisation is facing a
> serious crisis. She had commissioned a team of consultants, led by Leonard
> Leser and Richard Matzopoulos, from the reputed French firm of
consultants,
> Health Care Management Initiative, to review the management practices
> through which the organisation planned and monitored its performance (51).
> The report was not positive. The consultants titled their case study " The
> Worst of Both Worlds": The Management Reform of the World Health
> Organization, as an allusion to their overwhelming impression that the
> senior managers and policymakers of the global "public sector"
institutions
> seemed to be adopting what they believed to be the current business
> management ideology -- namely that efficiency and productivity are
obtained
> through harsh, rigid control and that short-term results to satisfy
external
> stakeholders are justifiable at any cost. This approach results in a
> cruelty and inflexibility in the institution, extreme resistance from the
> staff, and a range of actions and interventions that are clearly not
> sustainable. This, according the Leser and Matzopoulos, is certainly not
the
> current in most of the private sector: this is the worst of the private
> sector management . At the same time WHO exhibits the worst of the "public
> sector" in the archaic form of governance, political context of decision
> making, and lack of transparency and accountability that are often part of
> the U.N. system and the global "public"service. The consultants conclude:
"
> We are left reflecting on a way forward and perhaps considering two simple
> questions: what are the core business of WHO and who has the courage to
> grapple with root causes of the problems?"(1).
>
> Any person who aspires to be the new DG should have proven capability to
> face the formidable task of checking the remorseless decline in the
> performance of the organisation. Even more formidable will be the task of
> finding an alternative perspective of performance which takes the
> organisation towards achieving the lofty goals that are enshrined in the
> Constitution of the WHO. The Alma Ata Declaration of 1976 shows the beacon
> light to move in that direction. It will require a global vision and
> considerable political, social, managerial and public health competence to
> meet the job requirement of the DG.
>
> Reference:
>
> 1. Leser, L. and Matzopoulos,R., "The worst of both worlds": The
management
> reforms of the World Health Organization, Int. J.Health Serv. 31:
> 415-437,2001.