Amid COVID-19 pandemic taking its tool on the world and the role of WHO in question in handling the matter, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan is all set to take charge as the chairman of the WHO Executive Board on May 22. Vardhan would succeed Dr Hiroki Nakatani of Japan, currently the Chairman of the 34-member WHO Executive Board.

The 194-nation World Health Assembly has signed the proposal to appoint India’s nominee to the executive board. It was just a formality after WHO’s South-East Asia group had unanimously decided last year that India would be elected to the executive board for a three-year-term beginning of May.

Vardhan would be elected at the Executive Board meeting of the World Health Organisation on May 22. The post of chairman is held by rotation for one year among regional groups and it was decided last year that India’s nominee would be the Executive Board chairman for the first year starting on May 22, 2020.

It is not a full-time assignment and the minister will just be required to chair the Executive Board’s meetings. The Executive Board is composed of 34 individuals technically qualified in the field of health, each one designated by a member state elected to do so by the World Health Assembly.