Geneva, 27 May 2016 (PAHO-WHO) - The 69th World Health Assembly elected Colombia, Jamaica, and Mexico to replace Argentina, Brazil, and Suriname in the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the next three years.
The main functions of the Board are to implement the decisions and policies of the Health Assembly, advise it, and generally facilitate its work.
The Executive Board is composed of 34 individuals technically qualified in the field of health, each one designated by a Member State elected to do so by the World Health Assembly. Member States are elected for three-year terms. This year, 12 of the 34 countries that make up the Executive Board were replaced.
The election of these three new Western Hemisphere nations to the Board was agreed upon in October 2015 by the countries of the Americas, during a meeting at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/WHO Regional Office for the Americas headquarters in Washington, D.C.
In addition to Colombia, Jamaica, and Mexico, the United States and Canada are the other countries of the Americas that are part of the Executive Board. The United States and Canada will serve on the Board until 2017 and 2018 respectively, when their terms of office expire.
