Friends of IARC

“It has been an honour to work jointly with IARC during my WHO career. IARC′s global leadership in cancer control and its impressive technical and scientific input and products made a major contribution to the development of the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases, endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2000, the Political Declaration of the United Nations General Assembly on Noncommunicable Diseases, in 2011, and subsequent milestones in the global fight against cancer and other noncommunicable diseases.” 

Dr Ala Alwan is Regional Director Emeritus of the World Health Organization (WHO). He is a Visiting Professor in Global Health at the University of Washington, an Honorary Professor of Public Health at Imperial College London, and an Honorary Professor of Global Health at the University of Oxford. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Global Health Centre of the Graduate Institute, Geneva. Dr Alwan held several senior leadership positions at WHO, including Assistant Director-General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, Assistant Director-General and Representative of the Director-General for Emergencies and Health Action in Crises, and Regional Director for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. Before joining WHO, he was a Professor of Medicine and Dean of Mustansiriya Medical School in Iraq. In 2003–2005, he was Minister of Health and Minister of Education of Iraq. 

At WHO, Dr Alwan coordinated the development of the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases, endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 2000, and led the work of WHO and the United Nations (UN) in preparing for and organizing the first UN General Assembly high-level meeting on noncommunicable diseases, held in 2011. Dr Alwan is a member of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health in London.