World Health Organization
Organisation mondiale de la Santé
EXECUTIVE BOARD Provisional agenda item 21.1 EB95/43 Ninety-fifth Session 22 November 1994
Accelerating the employment and
participation of women in the work of WHO
Report by the Director-General
In resolution EB93.R17, the Executive Board called for certain measures to be taken to accelerate the recruitment of women to posts in the professional category and for priority consideration to be given to their appointment at D.2 and ungraded levels. The same resolution requested the Director-General to report annually to the Executive Board on action taken to increase the number of women at the most senior levels. This report outlines the progress made since January 1994.
I. INTRODUCTION
1. By resolution EB63.R25, the Executive Board in 1979 approved the establishment of a specific target for the recruitment of women to professional and higher-graded posts in established offices. The target was set at 20% and subsequently raised to 30% in 1985 by resolution WHA38.12.
2. Since adoption of resolution EB63.R25, the Director-General has submitted a report on progress towards achievement of the 30% target to the Executive Board on a biennial basis. The last progress report, which compared data for October 1990 with those for September 1992，was submitted to the Executive Board at its ninety-first session in January 1993.1 By resolution EB91.R16, the Executive Board established a time limit of 30 September 1995 for the achievement of the 30% objective, and requested the Director-General to submit a report in 1996.
3. At its ninety-first session, the Executive Board expressed concern in particular about the underrepresentation of women at the highest levels, and by resolution EB93.R17 requested the Director- General and the Regional Directors to take specific measures to ensure that, in cases where qualified women had not applied for a vacant post in the professional category, the Programme Manager concerned and the Division of Personnel undertook an active search for such candidates; to ensure that the short-list of candidates submitted to a selection committee for professional category posts included qualified women candidates; and to pay particular attention to anything that might obstruct the employment of married women and mothers. The Board urged the Director-General to give priority consideration to the appointment of women at the D.2 and ungraded levels, where qualifications were equal.
II. CURRENT SITUATION
4. The following table indicates the number of women and men staff in the professional and higher categories in all posts in established offices and projects, and the proportion of posts occupied by women.
September 1992 September 1994 Net increase/decrease Staff Women Men Total Women Men Total Women Men Total Established offices
Headquarters 160 433 593 177 433 610 +17 _ +17
Regional offices, WHO Representatives'
offices and IARC 109 375 484 111 365 476 + 2 -10 - 8
Total established offices 269 808 1 077 288 798 1 086 +19 -10 + 9
Projects 105 364 469 97 336 433 - 8 -28 -36
Unassigned and others 8 19 27 20 19 39 +12 - +12
TOTAL
Established offices, projects, including unassigned and
others 382 1 191 1 573 405 1 153 1 558 +23 -38 -15
Proportion of posts occupied by women
Headquarters 27.0% 29.0% + 2.0%
Regional offices, WHO Representatives'
offices and IARC 22.5% 23.3% + 0.8%
Total established offices 25.0% 26.5% + 1.5%
Projects 22.4% 22.4% -
Unassigned and others 29.6% 51.3% +21.7%
TOTAL WHO 24.3% 26.0% + 1.7%
5. The proportion of posts occupied by women rose from 27% in 1992 to 29% in 1994 at headquarters and from 22.5% to 23.3% in regional offices, WHO Representatives' offices and IARC. The proportion of posts occupied by women rose from 36.5% to 39.7% in the Region of the Americas and from 35.3% to 38.0% in the European Region.
6. In all established offices, the percentage of women occupying professional and higher graded posts rose from 25% to 26.5%.
7. In established offices and projects, including unassigned staff, the percentage of professional and higher- graded posts occupied by women increased from 24.3% in 1992 to 26% in 1994. The breakdown of the numbers of women and men professional staff in headquarters, regions, IARC and projects is given in the Annex, Table 1.
8. Tables 2 and 3 of the Annex compare the numbers and proportion of women and men by location and grade between September 1992 and September 1994. During this period the representation of women occupying posts at D.2 level evolved as follows:
- a t headquarters the number of women rose from 4 to 7，representing an increase of 8.5 percentage points from 9.4% to 17.9%;
- i n regional offices and WHO Representatives' offices, there was one woman occupying a D.2 post in September 1992, but there is none in September 1994;
-overall, the representation of women at this level has increased from 6 to 7，i.e. from 12.2% to 13.2%.
There are still no women at the ungraded level in WHO. Globally, the number of men at this level increased from 14 to 17 during the period from September 1992 to September 1994.
9. Evolution of the representation of women in decision-making positions at headquarters between September 1993 (the earliest date for which figures are available) and September 1994 is shown in the following table:
1993 1994
Men Women Women
% Men Women
Women
%
Ungraded 9 0 0.0 9 0 0.0
Director 30 3 9.0 33 5 13.1
Associate/Deputy Director 6 3 33.3 6 2 25.0
Chief/Programme Manager/
Responsible Officer 88 8 8.3 78 10 11.3
Total 133 14 9.5 126 17 11.8
10. These figures show a decrease of 7 men and an increase of 3 women in these positions, i.e. 2.3%
increase of women.
III. MEASURES TAKEN TO ACCELERATE THE RECRUITMENT OF WOMEN
11. Since adoption of resolution EB93.R17，a memorandum has been sent to all Divisional Directors and Programme Managers advising them of the terms of the resolution and providing them with information on the distribution of women and men staff in their respective areas. The memorandum called for their continued cooperation in order to achieve the target of 30% of all professional and higher-graded posts in established offices occupied by women by September 1995. In addition, particular efforts have been made by Programme Managers and the Division of Personnel to contact women's associations and to search actively for qualified women candidates. A systematic search for qualified women is made in the roster of candidates for each vacancy notice issued. The roster of candidates at headquarters has been made available to regional
12. With reference to paragraph 1(2) of resolution EB93.R17, efforts have been made to include women on the short-list of candidates submitted to a selection committee for professional category posts. The following table shows the total number of submissions made to selection committees since February 1994，
the number and percentage of submissions which included at least one woman, and the numbers of men and women selected.
Submissions
Submissions including women on the short-list
Submissions including women on the short-list
%
Men
selected Women selected
Women selected
%
Headquarters/
interregional 33 26 78.8 20 13 39.4
Regional offices and WHO Representatives'
offices 44 26 59.1 33 11 33.3
13. Since the adoption of resolution EB93.R17, the Director-General has appointed two women to D.2 level.
IV. CONCLUSION
14. The representation of women in decision-making positions at headquarters has increased from 9.5% to 11.8% over a period of one year. The representation of women at D.2 level at headquarters has increased from 9.4% to 17.9% over a period of two years. However, since the total number of posts at these levels is very small, percentages can vary considerably with the recruitment or separation of one or two staff members.
15. It is clear that the percentage of women at senior levels (P.5 and above) is still low in most regions.
More effort must be made to search actively for qualified women candidates for posts at these levels and to give them priority consideration for appointment where qualifications are equal.
16. Positive steps have been taken to implement the measures contained in resolution EB93.R17 in the short period since its adoption (nine months), but more time will be required to evaluate properly the results. In the meantime, further efforts will be needed to ensure that every submission to a selection committee includes candidatures of qualified women.
17. The situation will continue to be monitored and a progress report will be submitted to the Executive Board in a year's time.
V_ ACTION BY THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
18. The Board is invited to note the report.ANNEX
TABLE 1. WOMEN AND MEN PROFESSIONAL STAFF • ALL LOCATIONS (1992 and 1994)
Total Women Men Women
%
1992 1994 1992 1994 1992 1994 1992 1994 All locations 1 573 1 558 382 405 1 191 1 153 24.3 26.0
Established offices 1 077 1 086 269 288 808 798 25.0 26.5
Headquarters 593 610 160 177 433 433 27.0 29.0
Regional offices 428 427 95 99 333 328 22.2 22.8
Africa 114 129 19 21 95 108 16.7 16.3
The Americas 63 58 23 23 40 35 36.5 39.7
South-East Asia 57 56 5 5 52 51 8.8 8.9
Europe 68 71 24 27 44 44 35.3 38.0
Eastern Mediterranean 74 71 15 14 59 57 20.3 19.7
Western Pacific 52 42 9 9 43 33 17.3 21.4
IARC 56 49 14 12 42 37 25.0 24.5
Projects 469 433 105 97 364 336 22.4 22.4
Unassigned and others 27 39 8 20 19 19 29.6 51.3
TABLE 2. WOMEN AND MEN PROFESSIONAL STAFF, BY GRADE • ALL LOCATIONS (1992 AND 1994)
Grade categories
Total Women Men Women
Grade % categories
1992 1994 1992 1994 1992 1994 1992 1994
All locations P.1-P.3 P.4 P.5 P.6/D.1 D.2 UG
344 460 567 139 49 14
348 458 535 147 53 17
153 131 82 10 6
163 130 92 13 7
191 329 485 129 43 14
185 328 443 134 46 17
44.5 28.5 14.5 7.2 12.2
46.8 28.4 17.2 8.8 13.2
Established offices P.1-P.3 234 226 112 109 122 117 47.9 48.2
P.4 242 265 76 86 166 179 34.5 32.5
P.5 417 398 67 73 350 325 16.1 18.3
P.6/D.1 129 132 10 13 119 119 7.8 9.8
D.2 42 49 4 7 38 42 9.5 14.3
UG 13 16 - - 13 16 - -
Headquarters P.1-P.3 108 101 57 56 51 45 52.8 55.4
P.4 139 157 51 58 88 99 36.7 36.9
P.5 254 245 43 50 211 195 16.9 20.4
P.6/D.1 54 59 6 6 48 53 11.1 10.2
D.2 32 39 3 7 29 32 9.4 17.9
UG 6 9 - - 6 g - -
Regional offices P.1-P.3 100 105 43 43 57 62 43.0 41.0
and WHO P.4 87 91 24 27 63 64 27.6 29.7
Representatives' P.5 157 148 24 23 133 125 15.3 15.5
offices P.6/D.1 70 67 3 6 67 61 4.3 9.0
D.2 8 10 1 - 7 10 12.5 -
UG 6 6 - - 6 6 - -
IARC P.1-P.3 26 20 12 10 14 10 46.2 50.0
P.4 16 17 1 1 15 16 6.3 5.9
P.5 6 5 - - 6 5 - -
P.6/D.1 5 6 1 1 4 5 20.0 16.7
D.2 2 - - - 2 - _ •
UG 1 1 - - 1 1 - -
Projects P.1-P.3 109 116 40 48 69 68 36.7 41.4
P.4 211 178 51 35 160 143 24.2 19.7
P.5 136 126 13 14 123 112 9.6 11.1
P.6/D.1 9 10 - - 9 10 - -
D.2 4 3 1 - 3 3 25.0 -
Unassigned and P.1-P.3 1 6 1 6 _ _ 100.0 100.0
others P.4 7 15 4 9 3 6 57.1 60.0
P.5 14 11 2 5 12 6 14.3 15.5
P.6/D.1 1 5 - - 1 5 - -
D.2 3 1 1 - 2 1 33.3
TABLE 3. WOMEN AND MEN PROFESSIONAL STAFF, BY GRADE • REGIONAL AND WHO REPRESENTATIVES' OFFICES
(1992 and 1994)
Grade categories
Total Women Men Women
Grade % categories
1992 1994 1992 1994 1992 1994 1992 1994
Africa P.1-P.3 29 40 7 7 22 33 24.1 17.5
P.4 17 18 4 4 13 14 23.5 22.2
P.5 44 45 8 6 36 39 18.2 13.3
P.6/D.1 22 24 - 4 22 20 - 16.7
D.2 1 1 - - 1 1 - -
UG 1 1 - - 1 1 - -
The Americas P.1-P.3 24 20 14 16 10 4 58.3 80.0
P.4 17 18 7 6 10 12 41.2 33.3
P.5 21 18 2 1 19 17 9.5 5.6
P.6/D.1 - - - - - - - -
D.2 - 1 - - - 1 - -
UG 1 1 - - 1 1 - -
South-East Asia P.1-P.3 8 8 - - 8 8 -
P.4 7 9 3 3 4 6 42.9 33.3
P.5 25 23 1 2 24 21 4.0 8.7
P.6/D.1 14 12 - - 14 12 - -
D.2 2 3 1 - 1 3 50.0 -
UG 1 1 - - 1 1 - -
Europe P.1-P.3 11 14 7 g 4 5 63.6 64.3
P.4 22 21 8 9 14 12 36.4 42.9
P.5 27 27 7 8 20 19 25.9 29.6
P.6/D.1 6 7 2 1 4 6 33.3 14.3
D.2 1 1 - - 1 1 - -
UG 1 1 - - 1 1 - -
Eastern Mediterranean P.1-P.3 16 15 g 7 7 8 56.3 46.7
P.4 12 13 2 3 10 10 16.7 23.1
P.5 22 24 3 3 19 21 13.6 12.5
P.6/D.1 20 15 1 1 19 14 5.0 6.7
D.2 3 3 - - 3 3 - -
UG 1 1 - - 1 1 - -
Western Pacific P.1-P.3 12 8 6 4 6 4 50.0 50.0
P.4 12 12 - 2 12 10 - 16.7
P.5 18 11 3 3 15 8 16.7 27.3
P.6/D.1 8 9 - - 8 g - -
D.2 1 1 - - 1 1 - -
UG 1 1 “ “ 1 1 • -
