Agendas
10 The timetable and process of preparation of the agendas for the governing bodies are determined by the Rules of Procedure of the World Health Assembly and by the Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board.
20 The provisional agendas for the Health Assembly, the Executive Board and the related committees, as well as intergovernmental meetings convened by them, are drafted by the Office of the Governing Bodies (GBS), for approval by the Director-General in consultation with the Deputy Director-General and the responsible assistant directors-general. GBS coordinates the process of consultation with Member States and finalization of the provisional agendas.
30 The draft provisional agenda for the January session of the Executive Board is prepared and circulated to Member States four weeks after the close of the May session of the Executive Board. In September, following the twelve-week deadline for comments or proposals for additional items by Member States, the Director-General consults the Officers of the Board to establish the provisional agenda as well as an annotated provisional agenda containing brief summaries of the items contained therein. If the Officers of the Board recommend the deferment or exclusion of proposals received from Member States from the provisional agenda, an explanation for such recommendations is included in the annotated provisional agenda. The provisional agenda is then placed on the web and circulated to Member States eight weeks before the opening of the Board. It is then considered, revised as necessary and adopted in the first meeting of the Board.
40 The draft provisional agenda and a preliminary daily timetable for the World Health Assembly are presented by the Secretariat in a document for the consideration of the Executive Board at its first session of the year in January. The provisional agenda is formally issued following the Board session. It is considered by the General Committee on the first day of the Health Assembly, revised to include any proposed amendments, and submitted to the Health Assembly for adoption on the first day. It is then issued as the agenda.
50 The draft provisional agenda for the second session of the Executive Board, which follows the Health Assembly, is transmitted to Member States for comment within four weeks of the January session, and follows the same process described above for the January session.
Dates, place and duration of Governing Body meetings
60 The Executive Board, at its session in May, decides on the date, place and duration of the Health Assembly in the following year (conventionally held in May, in Geneva). At each session of the Executive Board, the Board also decides on the date, place and duration of its next session. In addition, the Board decides on the dates, place and duration of the biannual meetings of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee (conventionally held to precede the Board meeting in January and the Health Assembly in May).
Pre-session documentation
70 In accordance with the Rules of Procedure of both the World Health Assembly and the Executive Board, documents must be made available to Member States six weeks before the start of the session to which they refer. They must be issued simultaneously in the six official languages of the Health Assembly and the Board.
80 All documents may be found on the web site of the Governing Bodies, available in six official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish). See section I.3.3.
90 To prepare the documentation, GBS informs the relevant clusters of the items and documents under their responsibility, based on the items on the provisional agendas, sets deadlines and maximum word counts for the documents, and monitors the process from submission, through editing, clearance, translation, formatting, printing, and dispatch.
In-session documentation
100 GBS holds a daily documentation meeting at the close of each day's proceedings to establish the documentation needs, such as production of conference papers or information documents, for the next day.
Resolutions and decisions
110 Resolutions are posted on the documentation page of the web site of the Governing Bodies daily as they are adopted in-session.
120 A document is prepared immediately after the session containing the list of resolutions adopted and the text of the decisions.
130 The full texts of the resolutions and decisions, and significant materials associated with them, are presented in their final form in the published volume of the official records.
Official records of the sessions
140 Publication of summary records of the public meetings of the committees and sub-committees of the Health Assembly and of the Executive Board is mandated by the Rules of Procedure of the World Health Assembly and the Rules of Procedure of the Executive Board.
150 Verbatim records of the plenary meetings of the Health Assembly are required by the Rules of Procedure of the World Health Assembly.
160 Official records are prepared during the session (see also section III.13.3) and published as soon as possible following the meetings. The summary and verbatim records are available in final form on the WHO web site.
Priorities
170 The production of Health Assembly or Executive Board documents with set deadlines has absolute priority over the production of any other documents. During governing body meetings, the production of summary records has second priority and (during the Health Assembly) the verbatim record has third priority. Any other type of document has lower priority.
Distribution
180 The primary source for documents is the WHO web site.
190 If printed copies are required, a certain number are distributed in accordance with pre-established patterns. During sessions a limited number of additional copies of documents may be obtained from the Documents counter.
