Ala Abdessaheb al-Alwan (short: Ala Alwan), is Professor of Medicine and Global Health. He was Dean of the College of Medicine, Al-Mustansiriya University. He held leading positions at the World Health Organization (WHO), including Director of the Department of Non-communicable Diseases at WHO headquarters in Geneva (1998-2001), WHO Representative and Chief of Mission in Jordan (2001-2003), WHO Assistant Director General and Representative of the Director General for Emergencies and Health Action in Crises (2005-2007), and Assistant Director General for Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health (2007-2012). He was then elected by Member States as Director of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (2012-2017). At the end of his WHO term of office, he joined the University of Washington as Professor of Global Health (2017-2018) and was Principal Investigator of the Disease Control Priorities 3 project. Professor Alwan then joined the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as Professor of the Practice of Global Health from 2019 to 2023 and was Principal Investigator of the Disease Control Priorities 3 Country Translation project. Prof Alwan is currently WHO EMRO Regional Director Emeritus and Visiting Professor of Global Health at the University of Oxford.
In his own country, Iraq, he was Minister of Education in the cabinet appointed by the Interim Iraq Governing Council in September 2003, and Minister of Health in the first interim government (2004-2005) and again Minister of Health and Environment from 2018-2019.
Education and career
Prof Alwan graduated in Medicine from the University of Alexandria. He practiced medicine in Scotland and obtained his postgraduate training and qualifications in the United Kingdom. Following his return to Iraq, he held several positions in clinical and academic medicine and public health. He was Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad.
Prof Alwan left Iraq in 2005 back to the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, where he held several leading positions. During his work in WHO, he led the development of the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases, which was endorsed by all Member States during the World Health Assembly in May 2000. He also led the Global Program on Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health in WHO, including the preparations at WHO and the United Nations for the Heads of State meeting on noncommunicable diseases during the first two days of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in September 2011. The outcome of the high-level meeting was the Political Declaration issued by the General Assembly to guide global work on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases, the leading causes of mortality and premature death worldwide. Prof Alwan later led the development of the public health "best buys", which are high-impact interventions feasible to implement in all countries to control noncommunicable diseases.
In October 2011, Prof Alwan was elected by Member States for the position of Director of the World Health Organization Region of the Eastern Mediterranean (covering Arab countries, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan). His appointment was confirmed by the WHO Executive Board in January 2012.
His work on the Disease Control Priorities 3 project included contributions to the Disease Control Priorities 3 volumes, published by the World Bank, as well as being the Principal Investigator of the DCP3 Country Translation phase, which involved extensive work in several low- and middle-income countries, including Pakistan and Liberia. He is the leading editor of Volume 1 of the Disease Control Priorities 4 (Country-led priorities in health), which was launched by the World Bank in March 2025..
Other activities
- Member of the Global Polio Eradication Independent Monitoring Board
- Member of the WHO High-Level Commission on Noncommunicable Diseases
- Vice-Chair of the Bureau of the Member States Working Group on Pandemic Preparedness and Control, established by the World Health Assembly in May 2021
- World Health Summit (WHS), Member of the Council
- DCP3, Member of the Advisory Committee to the Editors
- Lancet-O'Neill Institute Georgetown University Commission on Global Health and Law, Member
- Served on the selection committee that chose Peter Sands to succeed Mark Dybul as Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) in 2017.
Publications
Prof Alwan has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific papers and editorials, published in national, regional and international journals. Most publications are included in his ORCID profile .