KATHMANDU, August 7: Nepal has fielded Dr Shambhu Acharya for the post of South East Asia Regional Director of the World Health Organization (WHO).

This comes in response to the invitation made by the WHO on April 21, 2023 to the member states of the South-East Asia region to nominate a candidate for the position. The Nepal government recently made a decision to nominate Dr Acharya for the post.

The election of the regional director will be held at the WHO Regional Committee Meeting to be held from October 30 to November 2. The election to the post will be held on October 31.

WHO's South-East Asia Regional Office was established in 1948. It provides technical assistance and cooperation in the field of public health to the 11 member states in the region. Its members include Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.

Elections to the post of Regional Director of WHO are held every five years with a new round of election scheduled for the September meeting. Nepal has not had the opportunity to hold the position of Regional Director of the WHO.

Acharya has more than 30 years of experience in the field of public health. He has been working on policy, strategy, multilateral cooperation and international improvement in the field of health in Nepal, various regions of Asia and even at the global level. He has previously worked as the Director of WHO to support Nepal and collaborate with the UN system.

Dr Acharya holds a PhD in health policy and financing from the University of North Carolina, Gillings School of Global Public Health (USA) and a Master’s degree in social policy, population economics, demography and biostatistics from Ball State University, Indiana, USA. Prior to that, he studied a Master's degree course in business administration with a focus on public finance at the University of Kurukshetra, India. 

 
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