WHO's new Assistant Director-General for Family and Community Health
On 1 October 2010, WHO's Family and Community Health (FCH) cluster -- to which the Departments of Making Pregnancy Safer (MPS) and Child and Adolescent Health and Development (CAH) belong -- welcomed Dr Flavia Bustreo as its new Assistant Director-General.
Dr Bustreo comes to the role with a strong background in maternal and child health, from her early work with NGOs setting up primary health care for refugees in the former Yugoslavia to assignments with WHO, the World Bank, the Child Survival Partnership and most recently, leading the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH). In the months prior to taking up the new post, she was instrumental in developing the Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health launched by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
With only five years remaining to reach Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5 for child and maternal health, this is a critical time. The MDG Summit in New York in September brought together many different actors who made commitments in the framework of the Global Strategy. "Now the real work begins, as we move forward to implement this ambitious plan", says Dr Bustreo. "Our role as WHO is to chair the process to determine the most effective arrangements for global reporting, oversight and accountability on women's and children's health. All stakeholders in this process want value for money. Our aim is to deliver on that requirement, and ensure that millions of lives are saved."