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Ala Alwan , an Iraqi national, is a physician and public health expert. He serves as the Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. He was elected as Regional Director by the WHO Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean in October 2011 for a five year term (2012–2017).

Under his five year tenure, Dr Alwan identified five strategic priorities for WHO’s work with Member States: strengthening health systems, promotion of maternal and child health, improving prevention and care for noncommunicable diseases, protecting people from communicable diseases, and promotion of emergency preparedness and response.

Education
Alwan qualified as MB.ChB. (MD), Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt. He practised medicine in Scotland and obtained his postgraduate training and qualifications in the United Kingdom. He is a member of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom (Internal Medicine), Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Glasgow, and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

Career
He has held academic positions; technical and managerial posts at Headquarters, Regional Office, and Country Offices of the World Health Organization; and has served as Minister of Education and Minster of Health in Iraq. Throughout his career, Dr Alwan has authored and coauthored a significant number of articles, reports and book chapters.

From 1990–1992 he was Dean, College of Medicine, University of Mustansiriya, Baghdad. Prior to that he was Chairman, National Board for the Selection of Drugs, Ministry of Health, Baghdad, Iraq.

In 1992, he joined the World Health Organization as Regional Adviser for Noncommunicable Diseases, in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. In 1995 he became WHO Representative in Oman, where he -. During 1997- 1998 he was Director, Division of Health Services Development, WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office in Egypt. He became WHO Representative in Jordan in 2001 and was awarded -- by his Majesty the King of Jordan for his contribution to public Health in the country.

In 2003, he was appointed as Minister of Education in the Iraqi Coalition Provision Government. Under his leadership, the Ministry of Education that year re-opened schools, renovated more than 1,000 school buildings, trained more than 32,000 teachers, prepared about 800 master trainers, and educated 6 million students in the first post-Hussein school year. More than 65 million new de-politicized textbooks were printed, an interim de-politicized curricula for civic education and history was established, funds were raised from several donors, and collaboration was established with the World Bank. His publication" Education in Iraq” described the situation of the education sector in Iraq, challenges encountered and a detailed four year strategy. Copies were distributed to all educational institutions in Iraq. The publication was printed in a second edition in 2005 and contained for the first time basic data on educational facilities and education staffing at the country level. At that time, the Ministry of Education had more than 300,000 employees.

In 2004, he was subsequently appointed Minister of Health of Iraq. His responsibilities included management of Primary Health Care, Basic Development Needs, Community-Based Initiatives, Pharmaceuticals, Human Resources, and Medical and Health Professional Education. He conducted analysis of the health situation in Iraq and developed a four-year strategy for the reconstruction of the health sector. In the remaining part of 2004 and early 2005 urgent rehabilitation of the physical infrastructure, training and capacity building, and resource mobilization occurred in the health system despite poor security, limited trained staff, and a progressively increasing burden on emergency medical services. Dr. Alwan authored and published "Health in Iraq" containing for the first time an assessment of the health situation in Iraq, future vision and areas of work.

He then returned to the World Health Organization, serving (2005–2008) as Representative of the WHO Director-General and Assistant Director-General for Health Action in Crises. He was responsible for emergency preparedness, response to emergencies and recovery from crises, including natural and man-made disasters. Dr Alwan was involved in implementing the United Nations reforms in the humanitarian area by establishing the global humanitarian health cluster, which includes membership of the different United Nations agencies, international nongovernmental organizations, and the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement. He coordinated international response of WHO and the Health Cluster in emergencies and disasters, and established the Health and Nutrition Tracking Service during emergencies and crises. Dr Alwan represented WHO in the United Nations Inter Agency Standing Committee. Under Dr Alwan’s leadership, a global survey was conducted for the first time to assess the health sector emergency preparedness and response in countries, identify gaps in preparedness and recommend actions to strengthen preparedness strategies and plans.

From 2008–2012, he served as Assistant Director General for Noncommunicable Diseases at WHO headquarters in Geneva. His focus was on identifying feasible cost-effective interventions for countries with differing socioeconomic and development contexts. He led the organization of the Global Multi-stakeholders Forum and the First Global Ministerial Conference for Healthy Lifestyles and Noncommunicable Diseases Control (Moscow, 28–29 April 2011), and co-chaired the International Steering Committee.

Dr. Alwan was elected Regional Director in October 2011, and took up the position for a five-year term, in February 2012. During his term as Regional Director, the Eastern Mediterranean Region has taken the lead globally in a number of key technical areas. These include identifying indicators to measure progress towards implementation of the United Nations Political Declaration on Noncommunicable Diseases and later being used as a basis for the globally endorsed process indicators. A regional framework for action was accepted as a clear guide for progress towards universal health coverage by other regions. The development of a regional core set of indicators, which was later expanded to the global WHO list. One of the most robust assessments of countries’ capacities to implement the International Health Regulations was conducted in the Region, spearheading the development of the globally adopted Joint External Evaluation tool. The Region successfully managed and contained major disease outbreaks including the Middle East and Horn of Africa polio outbreaks, MERS CoV, cholera, dengue fever, and measles.