EXPERT ADVISORY PANELS
AND COMMITTEES
Over 750 experts…
...from over 100 countries…
...supporting WHO programmes
Efficiency, as well as economy, makes it necessary to limit
the number of experts participating in discussions on any
given subject; on the other hand, it is difficult, in a small
group of experts, to obtain adequate representation of the
various branches of knowledge which bear upon its subject,
and of the diversified forms of local experience and trends
of thought prevailing in the various parts of the world.
These apparently conflicting requirements may be
reconciled by giving expert committees, whenever
desirable, flexible membership.
This may be done by setting up advisory panels of experts
conversant with all the required branches of knowledge and
forms of experience needed to cover adequately a particular
subject and providing adequate geographical representation.
From these panels will be drawn the members of the expert
committees, selection being made according to the agenda
of each meeting.
Definitions:
An expert advisory panel consists of experts from whom the
Organization may obtain technical guidance and support
within a particular subject, either by correspondence or at
meetings to which the experts may be invited.
A member of an expert advisory panel is an expert appointed
by the Director-General who undertakes to contribute by
correspondence technical information on developments in his
or her field, and to offer advice as appropriate, spontaneously
or upon request.
An expert committee is a group of expert advisory panel
members convened by the Director-General for the purpose
of reviewing and making technical recommendations on a
subject of interest to the Organization.
A member of an expert committee is an expert appointed by
the Director-General to serve at any particular meeting of
that committee.
Eligibility and criteria for nomination
Any person possessing qualifications and/or experience
relevant and useful to the activities of the Organization in a
field covered by an established expert advisory panel may
be considered for appointment as a member of that panel
after consultations with the national authorities concerned.
In the selection of members of expert advisory panels the
Director-General considers primarily their technical ability
and experience, but he also endeavour to ensure that the
panels have the broadest possible international
representation in terms of diversity of knowledge,
experience and approaches in the fields for which the panels
are established. He is helped in this task by panel
secretaries, Regional Directors and WHO programme
coordinators.
Members of expert advisory panels are appointed for such
period as the Director-General may determine, but not
exceeding four years. Members of expert advisory panels do
not receive any remuneration from the Organization.
The Director-General selects from one or more expert
advisory panels the members of an expert committee, taking
into consideration the need for adequate representation of
different trends of thought, approaches and practical
experience in various parts of the world, as well as for an
appropriate interdisciplinary balance. In making this
selection, the Director-General also takes into account the
desirability of achieving gender balance. The membership
of expert committees is not be restricted by consideration of
language, within the range of the official languages of the
Organization.
To ensure balanced geographical representation, consultants
and temporary advisers assigned to assist an expert
committee are selected, as far as possible, from countries
not represented on the committee's membership.
The Director-General submits to the Executive Board a
report on meetings of expert committees held since the
previous session of the Board. The report contains his
observations on the implications of the expert committee
reports and his recommendations on the follow-up action to
be taken, and the texts of the recommendations of the expert
committee shall be annexed.
* definition given by the Regulations for Expert Advisory Panels and Committees, text adopted by the Thirty-fifth World Health Assembly (resolution WHA53.10), in
replacement of the regulations adopted by the Fourth World Health Assembly. Amendments were adopted at the Forty-fifth, Forty-ninth and Fifty-third World Health
Assemblies (decision WHA45(10), resolution WHA49.29 and resolution WHA53.8, respectively).
World Health Organization
EXPERT ADVISORY PANELS AND COMMITTEES
Number of experts per Expert Advisory Panel
(as of January 2010)
Membership to Expert Advisory Panels
Membership of the 47 expert advisory panels totaled 781 in
December 2009, compared with 738 in December 2008. In
terms of regional distribution, 11% of panel members come
from the African Region, 24% from the Region of the
Americas, 9% from the South-East Asia Region, 32% from
the European Region, 11% from the Eastern Mediterranean
Region and 13% from the Western Pacific Region. Women
account for 27% of the total number of panel members.
Number of experts per nationality
(as of January 2010, selected countries)
USA
UK
India
Australia
Canada
France
China
Japan
Brazil
Germany
Egypt
94
76
39
34
29
22
18
20
20
16
14
Pakistan
Russian Federation
Switzerland
Thailand
Iran
Argentina
Belgium
Italy
Netherlands
Sweden
Nigeria
15
14
14
17
15
15
13
12
11
9
11
Recent meetings of Expert Committees
√ Seventieth Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food
Additives, Geneva, 21–29 October 2008:
The Committee made recommendations on the safety of
veterinary drug residues in food and established
acceptable daily intake levels or provided other safety
advice for in veterinary drugs and recommended over 90
maximum residue limits for those drugs in specific food
commodities.
√ WHO Expert Committee on Selection and Use of
Essential Medicines (17th report), Geneva, 23-27 March
2009:
Acute Bacterial Diseases
3
Ageing and Health
11
Biological Standardization
22
Blood Transfusion Medicine
24
Cancer
11
Cardiovascular Diseases
20
Chronic Degenerative Diseases (Diabetes)
Clinical Practice Guidelins and Clinical Research Methods
and Ethics
Clinical Surgical Procedures
11
Drug Dependence (Dependence Liability Evaluation)
16
Drug Dependence and Alcohol Problems
26
Drug Evaluation
50
21
5
Drug Policies and Management
26
Food Safety
29
Health Laboratory Services
16
Health Promotion
29
Health Science and Technology Policy
24
Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation
5
Human Genetics
22
Immunology
6
Injury and Violence Prevention and Control
International Pharmacopoeia and Pharmaceutical
Preparations
Leprosy
4
Malaria
72
9
14
Medicine Safety
0
Mental Health
25
Neurosciences
5
Nursing
4
Nutrition
18
Oral Health
19
Parasitic Diseases (Filarial Infections)
21
Parasitic Diseases (General Parasitology)
23
Parasitic Diseases (Leishmaniasis)
23
Parasitic Diseases (Schistosomiasis)
18
Parasitic Diseases (Trypanosomiasis)
12
Prevention of Blindness
12
Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Impairment
6
Rabies
5
Radiation
7
Rehabilitation
Sexually Transmitted Infections including those due to
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
2
27
√ Seventy-first FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food
Additives, Geneva, 16-24 June 2009
Traditional Medicine
25
Tuberculosis
18
Vector Biology and Control
28
√ Expert Committee on Biological Standardization,
Geneva, 19-23 October 2009
Virus Diseases
4
Virus Diseases (Antivirals and Interferon)
1
Zoonoses
2
The Committee reviewed the proposals regarding the
listing of pharmaceutical products in the essential
medicines list, several new applications for paediatric
medicines and the applications for the 16th Model list.
√ Forty-fourth Expert Committee on Specifications for
Pharmaceutical Preparations, Geneva, 12-16 October
2009.
For more information contact the Department of Research Policy and Cooperation
World Health Organization, 20 Av. Appia, Geneva, Switzerland [email protected]
TOTAL WHO EXPERT ADVISORY PANEL MEMBERS
781
© World Health Organization, 2010. All rights reserved.