Former Heads of the Secretariat
Dr Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, MD PhD
On 20 June 2014, Dr Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, from Brazil, took office as the new Head of the Convention Secretariat for a term of office of 4 years, replacing Dr Haik Nikogosian.
Dr da Costa e Silva is a medical doctor with a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ). She actively participated in the negotiations for the WHO FCTC and held important positions at WHO. Before joining the Convention Secretariat, Dr da Costa e Silva worked as coordinator for the Center for Studies on Tobacco and Health of the National Public Health School (ENSP/FIOCRUZ).
Dr da Costa e Silva is medical doctor, with a PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology and a Master’s degree in Business Administration for the Health Sector.
She was appointed Head of Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the UN’s tobacco control treaty, in June 2014. She directs support for the Parties to the Convention, so enabling them to implement their obligations under the treaty. She also supervises arrangements for the Convention’s Conference of the Parties (COP) and translates the decisions taken into programme activities.
Under her leadership, the Secretariat has overseen the Convention’s integration into far-reaching global agreements: these include strengthened WHO FCTC implementation among the health targets in the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and using the Convention as a means to enact Financing for Development (FfD). Dr da Costa e Silva has pursued an “open door policy” to Parties’ seeking assistance to apply treaty provisions, and has actively promoted robust countermeasures to prevent tobacco industry interference at the national, regional and global levels. She has also encouraged broader representation among COP observers (both intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations), which has assisted the Convention Secretariat’s work, and a fundraising strategy to underpin progress in implementing the treaty.
Over the past two decades, Dr da Costa e Silva has worked around the world, engaging in tobacco control activities in many countries and publishing numerous academic articles.
Between 2006 and 2014, Dr da Costa e Silva worked as a senior public health consultant to WHO and to the Secretariat of the WHO FCTC. She has also worked as a professor at the National Public Health School (ENSP/FIOCRUZ) in Rio de Janeiro and as Tobacco Control and Consumers’ Health team leader at the Pan American Health Organization in Washington DC.
In 2013 she was the founder and the first coordinator of the Centre for Studies on Tobacco and Health, within the National Public Health School of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, in Brazil.
From 2001 to 2005, she was director of the Tobacco Free Initiative at the World Health Organization in Geneva, supervising WHO’s global tobacco control agenda and the work of the Interim Secretariat of the WHO FCTC.
For 16 years, Dr da Costa e Silva coordinated the department of epidemiology and cancer prevention at Brazil’s National Cancer Institute, where she was involved in legislative, economic and disease surveillance activities, as well as regulatory cancer prevention measures with an emphasis on tobacco control, the establishment of a countrywide network for NCD control and the introduction of tobacco product regulation as part of the health regulatory agency.
Speeches
Dr Haik Nikogosian, Head of the Secretariat Emeritus, MD PhD
Dr Haik Nikogosian was the Head of the Convention Secretariat, WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) since the inception of the Secretariat in June 2007, with an initial mandate for four years, which was renewed for a further three years in 2011. The WHO FCTC is the first global treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization and provides new legal dimension for international health cooperation. The Convention was adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2003 and has currently 174 Parties (as at 21 June 2011). The responsibilities of the Head of the Convention Secretariat include provision of leadership in supporting the work of the Conference of the Parties and its subsidiary bodies, translating into programme activities the decisions of the Conference, and supporting Parties in fulfilling their obligations under the Convention. The mandate also includes promoting the Convention's implementation internationally, organizing the reporting arrangements under the Convention, and coordination with WHO and other relevant international organizations and bodies. Before his nomination as Head of the Convention Secretariat, Dr Haik Nikogosian served as Minister of Health, and as Chairman of the National Institute of Health of Armenia in 1990s, and thereafter in the period 2000-2007 he held different managerial positions with the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe, most recently as Head, Noncommunicable Diseases and Lifestyles. Dr Haik Nikogosian holds an MD, a PhD and professorship in medical sciences and Doctorate in healthcare organization and public health. He is a national of Armenia, born in 1955.
