Briefing notes for the Director General

The briefing notes for the Director-General should be short and in bullet points. They should highlight only the major issues. Since the purpose of these briefs is to ensure that the Director-General knows the outstanding current issues pertaining to the meeting, it is important that you present your information concisely and clearly.

Briefing notes for the Director-General contain just two sections:

Background – minimal background information related to the current situation, reporting on WHO actions and, when appropriate, noting significant health events relevant to the discussion.
Possible messages – statements that ask those attending the meeting to take some action. These statements begin with a verb, affirm what WHO is doing, and concentrate on specific actions.

For example, if the Director-General is scheduled to meet with the Minister of Health of a country experiencing an outbreak of a particular disease, the briefing note might contain just three sentences:

Background:

Note with concern 23% increase in cases of X over the past five years in the country.

Note ongoing [name of project] project with WHO and UNICEF in [XXX] province, where cases have declined by 12% in the same period.

Possible messages:

Encourage the Minister of Health to work with WHO and UNICEF on an expansion of the [name of project] project in the coming year.

Note that even when a template is used, a variety of approaches may be taken within sections, and not all sections may be needed.

Be sure to use the most recent template for notes for the Director-General, available in your Word menu. If you will be writing briefing notes, check the Director-General’s Office area on the WHO Intranet for additional information. There are very specific formatting requirements that we will not go into here.