Former Assistant Director-General – General Management,

World Health Organisation (WHO), IAS

Namita Pradhan has been Assistant Director-General at the World Health Organization. From October 2007 till 2011, she worked as Assistant Director-General for Partnerships and UN Reform and Country Focus. She has led the process of renewal of Country Focus Strategy in WHO and has worked on a policy for managing Partnerships and relations with non-governmental organizations and renewal of the country focus policy in WHO. Her other assignments included being Vice Chair of the United Nations Development Group for the year 2010 and being appointed by the Secretary General to serve on the Board of Governors of the UN Staff College in Turin.

Earlier, she had led the process of renewal of results-based management in WHO, worked on the development of the 11th General Programme of Work 2006-2015, and the Medium Term Strategic Plan 2008-13, as well as the biennial Programme Budgets 2006-07 and 2008-09. At WHO Headquarters in Geneva, she worked as an Adviser to two Directors-General, Dr GroHarlem Brundtland and Dr LEE Jong-wook.

Namita began her career in 1977 in the Indian Administrative Service and has served in various positions in the State Government of Maharashtra and the Government of India, including Ministry of Defence. As Additional Commissioner for Family Welfare, she supervised the state Health and Family Welfare programme, including a World Bank-funded project for the city of Mumbai, providing a package of basic health care and family planning. She has also held positions in the Government of India in the Ministries of Defence, Women and Child Development. As Director of International Health in the Ministry of Health, she coordinated international aid and assistance for health. In 1985, she was awarded the Lester Pearson Fellowship as an outstanding public servant by the International Development Research Centre in Canada