StemCell Therapy

Issued on: 15 March 2024

Deadline: 15 April 2024

The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking experts to serve as members of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine (STAG). This Call for experts provides information about the advisory group in question, the expert profiles being sought, the process to express interest, and the process of selection.

The Seventy-sixth World Health Assembly decision [WHA76(20)] requested the Director-General to develop a new global traditional medicine strategy for the period 20252034, and to submit the draft strategy for consideration by the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly in 2025.

The Political Declaration of the UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage 2023 also committed to exploring ways to integrate, as appropriate, safe, and evidence-based traditional and complementary medicine within national health systems, particularly at the level of primary health care.

Both strategically and technically, there is a need for WHO to convene an advisory group to provide advice to WHO on traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine.

In its capacity as an advisory body to WHO, the STAG shall have the following functions:

1. Advise WHO on the strategic directions of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine at global level;

2. Advise WHO on the appropriate approaches to integration of traditional and complementary medicine into health systems;

3. Provide technical support to WHO in setting norms and standards for traditional, complementary and integrative medicine to ensure its safe and effective use;

4. Provide scientific support to WHO in shaping the research agenda for traditional, complementary and integrative medicine; and

5. Assist WHO in articulating policy options for traditional, complementary and integrative medicine for countries.

These functions are in line with WHO strategic directions for traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine. The STAG is expected to make impartial and independent recommendations to WHO in this area. However, all recommendations are advisory to WHO, who retains full control over any subsequent decisions or actions.

The STAG shall normally meet at least once each year. However, WHO may convene additional meetings based on emerging priorities. STAG meetings may be held in person (at WHO headquarters in Geneva or another location, as determined by WHO) or virtually, via video or teleconference.

The STAG will be multidisciplinary, with members who have a range of technical knowledge, skills and experience relevant to Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine.

WHO welcomes expressions of interest from:

To register your interest in being considered for the STAG, please submit the following documents by 15 April 2024 at 24:00 (midnight) Geneva time to Dr LIU Qin (liuq@who.int) with a copy to Dr KIM Sungchol (kims@who.int), using the subject line Expression of interest for the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine:

After submission, your expression of interest will be reviewed by WHO. Due to an expected high volume of interest, only selected individuals will be informed.

Members of WHO advisory groups (AGs) 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, and the selection as a member of a AG is, 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 WHOs evaluation of an applicants experience, expertise and motivation and other criteria).

All AG 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/declarations-of-interest). AG 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 applicants experience and expertise and/or to assess whether the applicant meets the criteria for membership in the relevant AG.

The selection of members of the AGs 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 AG 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.

If selected by WHO, proposed members will be sent an invitation letter and a Memorandum of Agreement. Appointment as a member of an AG will be subject to the proposed member returning to WHO the countersigned copy of these two documents.

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 may also decide, at any time, not to proceed with the establishment of the AG, disband an existing AG or modify the work of the AG.

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.

AG members will not be remunerated for their services in relation to the AG or otherwise. Travel and accommodation expenses of AG members to participate in AG meetings will be covered by WHO in accordance with its applicable policies, rules, and procedures.

The appointment will be limited in time as indicated in the letter of appointment.

If you have any questions about this Call for experts, please write to Dr LIU Qin (liuq@who.int) well before the applicable deadline.

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Call for Experts - WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on ...

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