AN HISTORIC FIRST:
DG AND RDS MEET WITH PRESIDENTS OF ALL WHO STAFF ASSOCIATIONS
Geneva, March 7, 2007 – In an historic first, the Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan, convened a meeting which included the Regional Directors of AFRO, EURO, SEARO, and the DAF representing AMRO as well as the Presidents of the Staff Associations for AMRO, AFRO, EMRO, EURO, HQ, IARC, SEARO and WPRO. The Director of Human Resources and the Deputy Director-General also attended.
“I am here to listen”. These were the words with which Dr Chan opened the meeting which ran almost two hours, and covered issues ranging from improving the justice system, to having better performance management and formally recognizing the critical role of staff representation in policy decisions affecting conditions of service.
“This is the first meeting of its kind that I am aware of”, stated Dr Chan, “and I commit my team to, making sure it is not the last. I expect that we will meet regularly to have an open and frank discussion, that we will all have the freedom to put any issues on the table and sometimes we will disagree, but that we will work together to find a good solution for our staff.”
“We were encouraged”, said Lahouari Belgharbi, President of the HQ Staff Association, after the meeting. “We were very pleased to be invited to the meeting, but honestly, we didn’t know what to expect. I think we all learned a bit more about each other. I think management learned that we are reasonable people who deeply feel that creating a fair, safe and enabling environment for staff is key for our common goals, that we are not just a bunch of trouble makers. But we were also pleased to learn that Dr Chan herself is a trouble maker!” During the meeting, Dr Chan confessed that she worked with a staff union in Hong Kong to fight for equal pay for women health workers. Several Regional Directors also mentioned that they were members of their Staff Associations and recognized their important value to the Organization.
“What pleased me was that the conversation
was strategic and not just a list of demands”,
observed Dr Asamoa-Baah, the Deputy
Director-General.
Dr Chan opened the exchange with the observation that WHO’s role is not nearly so clear or unquestionable today as it was fifty years ago. “We live in a more complex environment with many other players. Certainly there will always be a WHO, but if we are to remain relevant and effective, we have to change our way of working.”
“We agree”, responded Christopher Bailey, Vice President of the HQ Staff Association. “But the elephant in the room is what sort of change and by whom? What emerged from the conversation was that fundamentally, a cultural change needs to happen throughout WHO, in management, in staff, in all of us. I think we all agreed that the way we relate to each other, and not just between administration and Staff Associations, but manager and staff member and even peer to peer has to be more communicative and collaborative. We each have a critical role to play in that. In that environment, defending staff rights becomes a common goal of all levels of the institution.”
“We need to improve transparency at all levels», stated Dr Samlee , Regional Director of SEARO.
“And today’s world requires that we share information”, added Dr Danzon, Regional Director of EURO.
Dr Najeeb Al-Shorbaji, the President of the EMRO Staff Association added that Staff Associations can play a critical role in creating a “learning Organization”, and that in turn will help prevent staff management conflict by encouraging constructive communication and problem solving before it hits a crisis point.
In discussing issues around performance
evaluation, Vincent Cogliano, President of
IARC Staff Association observed, “I learned
that it is not just staff that are afraid, but managers
as well. I think we need to keep that in
mind.”
“It’s only one conversation”, cautioned Belgharbi. “The proof, as always, is in the follow up. We were pleased to hear that the highest level of the Organization has committed to such follow up, and we are certainly going to be vigilant in reminding them.”
