Serial Number: 2024/December/186
Issued on: 12 December 2024
Deadline: 9 January 2025 (23:59 CET)
The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking experts to serve as members of the Expert Advisory Panel/Committee on Donation and Transplantation of cells, tissues and organs (ECDT). This “Call for experts” provides information about the advisory committee in question, the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the process of selection.
Background
Transplantation of human cells, tissues, and organs, a cornerstone of modern medicine, offers life-saving benefits and enhances the quality of life for countless individuals. The World Health Assembly (WHA) has adopted several resolutions promoting ethical principles for donation and transplantation while indicating the necessary organizational requirements for securing quality and safety of the practices.
In 2022, WHO reported to the 75th WHA on the inadequate progress made since the adoption of resolution 63.22 (2010), with specific reference to the huge discrepancy in the availability and access to services, as rates of organ donation and transplantation vary widely between WHO regions, being highest in the Americas and Europe, and lowest in Africa and Southeast Asia. These variations are observed not only between different regions of the world but also among countries within the same region or those with similar socioeconomic statuses. Insufficient access to transplantation therapies is one of the root causes of trafficking in persons for the purpose of organ removal and trafficking in human organs, practices that undermine human rights and pose serious risks to public health.
These issues underscore the need for comprehensive actions to enhance donation and transplantation practices in Member States. In response to these challenges, the 77th WHA (2024) adopted Resolution 77.4 on Increasing availability, ethical access and oversight of transplantation of human cells, tissues and organs. The new resolution highlights that transplantation of cells, tissues and organs may have a potential impact on reducing premature mortality associated with noncommunicable and other diseases, it improves the quality of life of thousands of patients throughout the world and helps communities to diminish the high costs of alternative treatment modalities.
Resolution WHA77.4 requests the Director-General to develop a global strategy on donation and transplantation of cells, tissues and organs. Furthermore, it requests the establishment of an Expert Committee to assist the development of the global strategy and support WHO in its implementation.
The “Expert Committee on Donation and Transplantation of Cells, Tissues and Organs (ECDT)” is hereby established in accordance with the WHO Regulations for Expert Advisory Panels and Committees.
Functions of the Expert Advisory Panel/Committee on Donation and Transplantation of cells, tissues and organs (ECDT)
In its capacity as an advisory body to WHO, the “ECDT” shall have the following functions:
- To provide an independent evaluation of the scientific, technical, and socioeconomic aspects related to the global development of donation and transplantation of cells, tissues, and organs.
- To advise on the development of WHO norms, standards, technical guidelines and high-level strategic recommendations to enhance the availability, safety, and quality of cells, tissues and organs for transplantation, ensuring alignment with the WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue, and Organ Transplantation and other relevant WHO frameworks.
- To identify challenges and recommend strategic approaches for inclusion in a global strategy that addresses disparities in donation and transplantation services across different WHO regions and Member States, by integrating ethical considerations and best practices.
- To advise on stakeholder engagement and consultation processes, and to ensure the global strategy considers the needs and perspectives of Member States and other relevant stakeholders.
- To guide and support the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the global strategy’s outcomes and effectiveness.
Expert members shall serve in their personal capacities to represent the broad range of required technical and scientific disciplines.
Operations of the Expert Advisory Panel/Committee on Donation and Transplantation of cells, tissues and organs (ECDT)
- The ECDT shall normally meet at least once each year, in person, at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on a number of days as required per the items on the agenda. However, WHO may convene additional meetings, if deemed necessary, in another location (as determined by WHO) or virtually, via video or teleconference.
- The working language of the ECDT will be English.
- The ECDT may decide to establish smaller working groups (sub-groups) to work on specific issues. Their deliberations shall take place via teleconference or videoconference. The outcome of their deliberations will be submitted to the ECDT for review at one of its meetings.
- ECDT members are expected to attend meetings and actively participate in working groups. If a member misses two consecutive meetings, WHO may consider ending his/her appointment.
- Reports of each ECDT meeting including its findings, observations and recommendations, shall be submitted to WHO for consideration by the Director-General. All recommendations from the ECDT are advisory to WHO, who retains full control over any subsequent decisions or actions regarding any proposals, policy issues or other matters considered by the ECDT.
Who can express interest?
The Expert Advisory Panel/Committee on Donation and Transplantation of cells, tissues and organs (ECDT) will be multidisciplinary, with members who have a range of technical knowledge, skills and experience relevant to the donation and transplantation of cells, tissues and organs, including other relevant areas of health system development, socio-anthropology and bioethics and bioengineering.
WHO welcomes expressions of interest from scientists, healthcare professionals, and healthcare regulators with expertise in the following areas:
- Transplant procurement management, deceased donation of organs and tissues;
- Transplant surgery and immunology;
- Nephrology, Gastroenterology, Cardiopulmonology, Ophthalmology, Plastic Surgery, Orthopaedics or any other speciality related to organ or tissue replacement therapies;
- Tissue banking, bioengineering;
- Xenotransplantation, stem cell research, regenerative medicine;
- Haematology and Haematopoietic Cell transplantation;
- Ethics, equity, human rights and gender in public health;
- National and international transplantation policy and social welfare;
- Socio-anthropology, public awareness and communication;
- Epidemiology and health measurement (biostatistics);
- Health economics, health system development and management;
- International law, crime prevention of human/organ trafficking.
The ECDT shall have up to 25 members and in their nomination, WHO shall ensure that regional and gender balance is sought.
Submitting your expression of interest
To register your interest in being considered for the Expert Advisory Panel/Committee on Donation and Transplantation of cells, tissues and organs (ECDT), please submit the following documents by 9 January 2025 (23:59 CET), to [transplantation@who.int] using the subject line “Expression of interest for the Expert Advisory Panel/Committee on Donation and Transplantation”:
- A cover letter, indicating your motivation to apply and how you satisfy the selection criteria. (Please note that, if selected, membership will be in a personal capacity. Therefore, do not use the letterhead or other identification of your employer);
- Your curriculum vitae; and
- A signed and completed Declaration of Interests (DOI) form for WHO Experts, available at https://www.who.int/about/ethics/declarations-of-interest.
After submission, your expression of interest will be reviewed by the WHO Secretariat in consultation with the WHO Regional Directors and the respective national authorities (Ministry of Health) concerned.
Due to an expected high volume of interest, only selected individuals will be informed.
Important information about the selection processes and conditions of appointment
Members of WHO expert advisory panels and committees must be free of any real, potential or apparent conflicts of interest. To this end, applicants are required to complete the WHO Declaration of Interests for WHO Experts, amongst other things, dependent on WHO determining that there is no conflict of interest or that any identified conflicts could be appropriately managed (in addition to WHO’s evaluation of an applicant’s experience, expertise and motivation and other criteria).
All ECDT members will serve in their individual expert capacity and shall not represent any governments, any commercial industries or entities, any research, academic or civil society organizations, or any other bodies, entities, institutions or organizations. They are expected to fully comply with the Code of Conduct for WHO Experts (https://www.who.int/about/ethics/ethical-principles). ECDT members will be expected to sign and return a completed confidentiality undertaking prior to the beginning of the first meeting.
At any point during the selection process, telephone interviews may be scheduled between an applicant and the WHO Secretariat to enable WHO to ask questions relating to the applicant’s experience and expertise and/or to assess whether the applicant meets the criteria for membership in the ECDT.
The selection of members of the ECDT will be made by WHO in its sole discretion, taking into account the following (non-exclusive) criteria: relevant technical expertise; experience in international and country policy work; communication skills; and ability to work constructively with people from different cultural backgrounds and orientations.
The selection of ECDT members will also take account of the need for diverse perspectives from different regions, especially from low and middle-income countries, and for gender balance. Given the need for equal representation of all 3 sectors (i.e. cells, tissues and organs) and taking in consideration the total number of members (i.e. 25), it is foreseen that there will be 1 expert, per sector, per WHO region plus 1 expert per region from complimentary professional backgrounds (i.e. bioethics, law, health economics, etc.).
WHO reserves the right to accept or reject any expression of interest, to annul the open call process and reject all expressions of interest at any time without incurring any liability to the affected applicant or applicants and without any obligation to inform the affected applicant or applicants of the grounds for WHO's action.
WHO shall not in any way be obliged to reveal, or discuss with any applicant, how an expression of interest was assessed, or to provide any other information relating to the evaluation/selection process or to state the reasons for not choosing a member.
WHO may publish the names and a short biography of the selected individuals on the WHO internet.
ECDT members will not be remunerated for their services in relation to the expert advisory panel/ committee or otherwise. Travel and accommodation expenses of ECDT members to participate in meetings will be covered by WHO in accordance with its applicable policies, rules and procedures.
The appointment will be limited to such period as WHO may determine, but not exceeding four years.
If you have any questions about this “Call for experts”, please write to transplantation@who.int well before the applicable deadline