AFRO-NETS> Call for Nominations to Strategic Committees

["Catherine d'Arcangues" <darcanguesc@who.int>]

Call for Nominations to Strategic Committees
--------------------------------------------

Department of Reproductive Health and Research - World Health Organi-
zation

The Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR) is estab-
lishing five Strategic Committees and, through this communication is 
calling for nominations of individuals to serve on these committees. 

One Strategic Committee will serve each of the following programme 
areas:

Family Planning, including Infertility: -- establishes the evidence 
base with regard to the safety and efficacy of family planning meth-
ods and sociocultural determinants of contraceptive use; develops new 
and improved methods of contraception; develops, sets and validates 
norms and standards for family planning, including infertility, and 
promotes their dissemination and proper implementation; and catalyses 
change in family planning policies and programmes through technical 
cooperation. 

Maternal and Neonatal Health: -- conducts research to map effective 
practices and improve quality of services for the mother and newborn; 
and provides normative guidance and technical support for the devel-
opment, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of cost-effective 
interventions to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity.

Unsafe Abortion: -- identifies the determinants and consequences of 
abortion, especially of unsafe abortion; develops new or improved 
methods for the safe termination of pregnancy; and assists health 
systems, programme managers and providers to increase access to qual-
ity services for postabortion care and, in circumstances where abor-
tion is not against the law, for the voluntary termination of preg-
nancy.

Sexually Transmitted and Reproductive Tract Infections, including 
Cervical Cancer: -- promotes and develops guidelines and tools for 
sexually transmitted and reproductive tract infection policy, pro-
gramme planning and implementation; establishes the evidence for new 
and improved STI and RTI control strategies; conducts research on the 
prevention of mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency 
virus and other STIs; enhances programmes for the prevention, early 
diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer; and, advocates and con-
ducts research on the development and deployment of safe and effec-
tive microbicides.

Sexual Health: -- reviews and conducts research on the relationship 
between gender roles, sexual behaviors, sexual practices and percep-
tions of pleasure, and on other factors, including the legal and pol-
icy environment, that impact on sexuality, sexual health and sexual 
well-being; evaluates models for service delivery to identify and 
promote best practices within and outside the health sector; develops 
evidence based guidelines and standards; and assists health systems 
to use this guidance in national sexual health strategies, programmes 
and interventions.

Each Strategic Committee is expected to:

* develop a strategic plan for the area of interest and monitor its 
  implementation. This plan should be developed based on the needs and 
  priorities in developing countries. It should be determined by a con-
  sideration of the state of the art, feasibility in terms of time and 
  cost estimates, issues already addressed adequately by other agencies 
  and optimal use of WHO?s position in the area of interest. It should 
  take into consideration the recommendations of the policy and expert 
  advisory groups who guide the Department's work, in particular the 
  Policy and Coordination Committee (PCC), the Scientific and Technical 
  Advisory Group (STAG) and the gender Advisory Panel (GAP), as well as 
  recommendations made at the Meeting of Interested Parties (MIP).

* recommend activities to implement this strategic plan: identify ar-
  eas for exploratory work, select priority areas, identify methodo-
  logical gaps.

* recommend budget requirements and allocations according to priori-
  ties within the strategic plan.

* advise on optimizing outcome and impact of the work carried out un-
  der the strategic plan.

* report through Secretariat to the Director of the Department and to 
  STAG.

To be eligible as members, individuals must:
* have demonstrated expertise in the area concerned and related ar-
  eas.
* preferably have developing country experience
* agree not to be recipient of funds from the Department during their
  period of appointment to the Committee
* not be in a position of conflict of interest (commercial or other)
* not be a member of STAG, GAP, the Scientific and Ethical Review
  Group (SERG), Toxicology Panel, Specialist Panels or any of the
  other Strategic Committees
* have a good knowledge of English.

Selection of members for a particular Strategic Committee will aim 
towards:
- balance of relevant disciplines 
- geographical distribution
- developing/developed country representation
- sex balance
- maximum of 12 regular members.

Appointments are made for a period of four years, renewable once.

The frequency of meetings will be flexible and reflect the needs of 
each programme area.

Self-nominations are accepted and we request that all nominations be 
accompanied by a recent Curriculum Vitae and contact information of 
the nominee. 

Nominations should be submitted by 15 July, 2002 to:

Dr Catherine d'Arcangues
Department of Reproductive Health and Research
World Health Organization
1211-Geneva-27, Switzerland
Tel: +41-22-791-4132
Fax: +41-22-791-4171 
mailto:darcanguesc@who.int

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