Professor Walid Ammar, Director of the Doctorate and Research in Public Health Program at the Higher Institute of Public Health (ISSP) – Faculty of Medicine of Saint Joseph University of Beirut (USJ), was appointed as the new Chair of the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee (IOAC) for the World Health Organization Health Emergencies Programme on May 26, 2022, during the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly in Geneva.

The Director-General extended the Programme and renewed its mandate for two more years. The Committee was established in 2016 to provide oversight and monitoring of the development and performance of the Programme and to guide the Programme’s activities.