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WHO Representative Dr Syed Jaffar Hussain
Dr Jaffar Hussain Syed, WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Islamic Republic of IranDr Syed Jaffar Hussain (Pakistan) was reassigned as WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Islamic Republic of Iran effective 1 April 2021. Prior to this assignment, Dr Hussain was Chef de Cabinet at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean from 1 July 2019 until 31 March 2021.
Previously, Dr Hussain worked as WHO Representative in Libya from September 2015 to July 2019, and WHO Representative in Tunisia from May 2016 to February 2018. During this period, Dr Hussain was also Resident Humanitarian Coordinator for a period of 6 months.
Between 2010 and 2015, Dr Hussain worked as WHO Representative and Head of Mission for Iraq, during which he also covered Syria for a period time. Among his other previous work assignments, Dr Hussain was Regional Adviser for Health Promotion and Violence, Injuries and Disabilities at the WHO Regional Office, starting in 2003.
Dr Hussain holds a doctorate degree in public health from Belford, United States of America, and a master’s degree in hospital and health services management from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, as well as a degree in medicine from the University of Peshawar in Pakistan.
Prior to joining the WHO Regional Office, Dr Hussain held the positions of Child Health Project Officer at UNICEF in Pakistan, WHO Child Health Technical Officer in Pakistan, and Health Coordinator at the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1997 to January 2003. His government assignments included Assistant Director of Pakistan's Expanded Programme on Immunization, Assistant District Health Officer, Deputy Medical Superintendent at the Psychiatric Hospital, and National Programme Manager of the Lady Health Worker Programme for Primary Health Care and Family Planning from 1990 to 1997.
Dr Hussain has worked extensively in emergency settings, particularly focusing on post-emergency health system strengthening, as well as health issues of refugees and migrants in the Region and beyond. Dr Hussain served as Regional Ombudsperson from 2006 to 2010. Dr Hussain has led many United Nations (UN) leadership initiatives with UN Staff College, the World Bank and WHO and authored numerous publications in international peer-reviewed journals.
WHO Representative Dr Jihane Tawilah
Dr Jihane Tawilah, WHO Representative for Islamic Republic of IranDr Jihane Tawilah has been the WHO Representative for the Islamic Republic of Iran since 2 January 2012.
Dr Tawilah received all her graduate and postgraduate training in the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. She is a medical doctor by training and specialized in family medicine. She also holds a Masters degree in public health with a focus on health services administration.
She started her career with WHO in 1990 serving in her own country, Lebanon, where she established and managed the National AIDS Control Programme. Later, she assisted in other WHO collaborative programmes with the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon, in the areas of health promotion and education, control of diseases including epidemiological surveillance, women's development and health research. She has also held the position of Lecturer in Epidemiology as well as Social and Preventive Medicine at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Lebanese University in Lebanon for seven years.
In 1997, Dr Tawilah worked with UNAIDS first as consultant then as Inter-Country Regional Adviser for the Middle East and North Africa Region after which she was appointed by WHO as Regional Adviser on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases and was based in Egypt at the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office for five years. She also served as WHO Representative in Djibouti from 2003 to early 2007.
