Public health round-up

Six candidates for the election of the next WHO Director-General will present their vision to representatives of WHO Member States and Associate Members at a candidates’ forum this month. The six candidates proposed by their respective governments: are Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ethiopia), Flavia Bustreo (Italy), Philippe DousteBlazy (France), David Nabarro (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Sania Nishtar (Pakistan) and Miklós Szócska (Hungary). Each candidate will be required to do a one-hour interview with representatives of WHO Member States and Associate Members, comprising a presentation and a question-an-answer session. The candidates’ forum is part of the new process for the election of the WHO Director-General launched this year and takes place on 1–2 November at headquarters in Geneva. It will be webcast through the WHO website in all official languages for the public. In January 2017, WHO’s Executive Board will screen all the candidatures and shortlist five of them based on one or more secret ballots. Members of the Executive Board will then interview the shortlisted candidates and nominate three of them to go forward to the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2017 for the final round of voting. Previously, only one nomination was submitted by WHO’s Executive Board to the World Health Assembly. The candidates’ forum follows a web forum held in October in which representatives from Member States asked candidates questions on a passwordprotected platform. Dr Margaret Chan, who was first elected Director-General in 2006, will complete her second term on 30 June 2017 and the new Director-General will take office the next day. http://apps.who.int/gb/ep/ ICD-11 released for consultation