Poonam Khetrapal Singh Explained
Poonam Khetrapal Singh (Hindi: पूनम खेत्रपाल सिंह) is the first Indian elected Regional Director of WHO’s South-East Asia Region.[1] She was also the first woman in the region to assume the office of WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia in February 2014. In September 2018, she was unanimously elected for a second five-year term by the 71st Regional Committee and 144th Session of the WHO Executive Board.[2]
Education and early career
Singh has a PhD in Public Health and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) of the University of Edinburgh.[3]
Prior to her service as Regional Director of the WHO South-East Asia Region, for over two decades she was a civil servant in India as a member of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) belonging to the 1975 Batch. This included roles as Secretary of the Department of Health and Family Welfare; Secretary of the Department of Personnel and General Administration; Managing Director of Punjab Financial Corporation and Punjab Industrial development corporations in the State of Punjab. She has also worked in the Health, Population and Nutrition Department of The World Bank and joined WHO headquarters in 1998 as Executive Director, Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments Cluster, and a member of the Director-General’s Cabinet. Dr Singh was the first Indian Women to serve as an Executive Director at WHO headquarters in Geneva. In February 2013, she joined the Government of India’s Ministry of Health & Family Welfare as Advisor for International Health, where her principal task was to strengthen global health outcomes and to take forward the international health agenda.[4]
Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia
Singh’s term as the Regional Director of the South-East Asia Region of World Health Organization is defined by the maxim "Sustain. Accelerate. Innovate." Each word complements her original "One by Four" plan and the seven (later eight) Flagship Priorities that, since 2014, anchored region-wide progress.[5] [6]
Her term ended in 2023, and she was succeeded by Saima Wazed, who took over the position as the new Regional Director.[7] [8]
Honours
Selected works and publications
- 10.4103/2224-3151.293433 . Safeguarding essential health services during emergencies: Lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic . 2020 . Jhalani . Manoj . Khetrapal Singh . Poonam . WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health . 9 . 2 . 93–94 . 32978338 . 221939967 . free .
- 10.4103/2224-3151.282988 . Quo vadis after COVID-19: A new path for global emergency preparedness? . 2020 . Ofrin . Rodericoh . Khetrapal Singh . Poonam . WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health . 9 . 1 . 1–4 . 32341214 . 216594279 . free .
- 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_832_20 . The research community must meet the coronavirus disease 2019 challenge . 2020 . Singh . Poonamkhetrapal . Indian Journal of Medical Research . 151 . 2 . 116–117 . 32270770 . 7357404 . free .
- 10.1016/S2468-1253(19)30318-8 . Sustain, accelerate, innovate: The burden of liver disease and way forward in the WHO South-East Asia region . 2020 . Singh . Poonam Khetrapal . The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology . 5 . 2 . 100–102 . 31852631 . 209418746 .
- 10.4103/2224-3151.264848 . Harnessing the potential of digital health in the WHO South-East Asia Region: Sustaining what works, accelerating scale-up and innovating frontier technologies . 2019 . Landry . Mark . Singh . Poonamkhetrapal . WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health . 8 . 2 . 67–70 . 31441439 . 201618119 . free .
- 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_1901_18 . Strategies for ending tuberculosis in the South-East Asian Region: A modelling approach . 2019 . Arinaminpathy . Nimalan . Mandal . Sandip . Bhatia . Vineet . McLeod . Ross . Sharma . Mukta . Swaminathan . Soumya . Hyder . Khurshidalam . Mandal . Parthapratim . Sarkar . Swarupkumar . Singh . Poonamkhetrapal . Indian Journal of Medical Research . 149 . 4 . 517–527 . 31411176 . 6676838 . free .
- 10.4103/2224-3151.255341 . Time to deliver: Accelerating more equitable access to better quality primary health-care services in the WHO South-East Asia Region . 2019 . Travis . Phyllida . Khetrapal Singh . Poonam . WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health . 8 . 1 . 1–3 . 30950422 . 96435422 . free .
- 10.4103/2224-3151.239414 . Accelerating access to essential medicines in the WHO South-East Asia Region: Opportunities for greater engagement and better evidence . 2018 . Travis . Phyllida . Khetrapal Singh . Poonam . WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health . 7 . 2 . 59–61 . 30136661 . 52070651 . free .
- 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30993-0 . Emergency deployment of oral cholera vaccine for the Rohingya in Bangladesh . 2018 . Qadri . Firdausi . Azad . Abul Kalam . Flora . Meerjady Sabrina . Khan . Ashraful Islam . Islam . Md Taufiqul . Nair . G Balakrish . Singh . Poonam Khetrapal . Clemens . John D. . The Lancet . 391 . 10133 . 1877–1879 . 29781432 . 29159499 .
- 10.4103/2224-3151.228420 . Universal health coverage in the World Health Organization South-East Asia Region: How can we make it "business unusual"? . 2018 . Travis . Phyllida . Singh . Poonamkhetrapal . WHO South-East Asia Journal of Public Health . 7 . 1 . 1–4 . 29582842 . 4386789 . free .
- 10.1186/s13099-018-0237-x . Towards ending viral hepatitis as a public health threat: Translating new momentum into concrete results in South-East Asia . 2018 . Singh . Poonam Khetrapal . Gut Pathogens . 10 . 9 . 29515657 . 5836424 . free .
- 10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30726-X . Harnessing genomics to improve outcomes for women with cancer in India: Key priorities for research . 2018 . Sundar . Sudha . Khetrapal-Singh . Poonam . Frampton . Jon . Trimble . Edward . Rajaraman . Preetha . Mehrotra . Ravi . Hariprasad . Roopa . Maitra . Arindam . Gill . Paramjit . Suri . Vanita . Srinivasan . Radhika . Singh . Gurpreet . Thakur . J. S. . Dhillon . Preet . Cazier . Jean-Baptiste . The Lancet Oncology . 19 . 2 . e102–e112 . 29413464 . 206145439 .
- 10.4103/ijph.IJPH_229_17 . Accelerating tobacco control in South-East Asia in the sustainable development goal era . 2017 . Thamarangsi . Thaksaphon . Singh . Poonamkhetrapal . Indian Journal of Public Health . 61 . 5 . S1–S2 . 28928310 . 4858166 . free .
- 10.4103/ijmm.IJMM_17_98 . Global Response to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance . 2017 . Singh . Poonam Khetrapal . Indian Journal of Medical Microbiology . 35 . 1 . 1–3 . 28303809 . 31074799 . free .
- 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31853-0 . New evidence of the tuberculosis burden in Asia demands national action . 2016 . Nadda . Jagat Prakash . Singh . Poonam Khetrapal . The Lancet . 388 . 10057 . 2217–2219 . 27751565 . 4818306 .
- 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31572-0 . Against the odds, Sri Lanka eliminates malaria . 2016 . Senaratne . Rajitha . Singh . Poonam Khetrapal . The Lancet . 388 . 10049 . 1038–1039 . 27613520 . 4828716 .
- 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30787-5 . Thailand eliminates mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis . 2016 . Sidibé . Michel . Singh . Poonam Khetrapal . The Lancet . 387 . 10037 . 2488–2489 . 27291996 . 4861083 .
- 10.4103/0019-557X.106412 . Progress in health-related millennium development goals in the WHO South-East Asia Region . 2012 . Singh . Poonamkhetrapal . Indian Journal of Public Health . 56 . 4 . 259–268 . 23354135 . free .
- 10.4103/0970-0218.94714 . Trend of Tobacco Use and Exposure to Secondhand Smoke Among Students Aged 13-15 Years in India and Selected Countries of the South-East Asia Region . 2011 . Sinha . Dhirendran . Thakur . JS . Singh . Poonamkhetrapal . Indian Journal of Community Medicine . 36 . 5 . S78-80 . 22628918 . 3354907 . free .
- 10.1017/s1049023x00002922 . Session 1.2: National Health Perspectives of the Tsunami Crisis . 2005 . Singh . Poonam Khetrapal . Ofrin . Roderico . Ravindran . P. . Paturussi . Idrus . Yasir . Ibrahim . Aung . Than . Kahandailyanage . H.A.P. . Kunaratanapruk . Suprachai . Prehospital and Disaster Medicine . 20 . 6 . 382–384 . 16496617 . 22654078 .
References
- Web site: PTI. Sep 12, 2013. Indian nominated as WHO South-East Asia regional director after 44 years India News - Times of India. 2021-09-30. The Times of India. en.
- Web site: WHO Executive Board . 144th Session. Agenda Item 9.1 . 2018 .
- Web site: Curriculum vitae of Poonam Khetrapal Singh.
- Web site: Biography. 2021-09-30. www.who.int. en.
- Web site: Dr Khetrapal Singh's vision for WHO South-East Asia. 2021-09-30. www.who.int. en.
- Web site: Flagships. 2021-09-30. www.who.int. en.
- Web site: Ms Saima Wazed takes charge as Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia . 2024-07-10 . www.who.int . en.
- Web site: 2024-02-02 . Bangladesh PM's daughter Saima Wazed takes charge as WHO's Southeast Asia regional director . 2024-07-10 . Hindustan Times . en.
- Web site: Bhutan recognizes WHO Regional Director, confers gold medal at National Day . 2024-07-10 . www.who.int . en.
- Web site: Service . Statesman News . 2023-12-19 . Former bureaucrat Poonam Khetrapal Singh honoured by Bhutanese King . 2024-07-10 . The Statesman . en.