Poonam Khetrapal Singh nominated as WHO Regional Director

Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh

Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh has been recently nominated as Regional Director for the WHO South-East Asia Region. She was nominated for a five-year term by the 11 Member States of the Region. The 32-member Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to appoint Singh as the Regional Director in January 2014, in Geneva. Singh is expected to take office at the Regional Office in New Delhi on February 1, 2014.

Singh brings a vast repertoire of experience, having worked in the health sector for over three decades at both national and international levels. She served with the WHO for the past 15 years. She is the first woman to be nominated to this post in the region.

Singh started her WHO career in 1998 as a member of Dr Gro Harlem Brundland’s cabinet who was WHO Director-General at the time. She served as the Executive Director for Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments in Geneva. From 2000 to 2013, as the Deputy Regional Director for WHO’s South-East Asia Region, she served as the principal adviser to the Regional Director, providing managerial, technical and programmatic support for WHO’s programmes.

Singh served as a senior civil servant in India as a member of the Indian Administrative Services. She was Secretary and Joint Secretary Health and Family Welfare. She has also served with Health, Population and Nutrition (PHN) with the World Bank Mission in India, where she worked to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of health services.

Recently she has been working as an Adviser in International health to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

EP News Bureau – Mumbai