Poonam Khetrapal Singh

Poonam Khetrapal Singh (Hindi: पूनम खेत्रपाल सिंह) is the first Indian elected Regional Director of WHO’s South-East Asia Region. She was also the first woman in the region to assume the office of WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia in February 2014. In September 2018, she was unanimously elected for a second five-year term by the 71st Regional Committee and 144th Session of the WHO Executive Board.

Education and early career Singh has a PhD in Public Health and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) of the University of Edinburgh.

Prior to her service as Regional Director of the WHO South-East Asia Region, for over two decades she was a civil servant in India as a member of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) belonging to the 1975 Batch. This included roles as Secretary of the Department of Health and Family Welfare; Secretary of the Department of Personnel and General Administration; Managing Director of Punjab Financial Corporation and Punjab Industrial development corporations in the State of Punjab. She has also worked in the Health, Population and Nutrition Department of The World Bank and joined WHO headquarters in 1998 as Executive Director, Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments Cluster, and a member of the Director-General’s Cabinet. Dr Singh was the first Indian Women to serve as an Executive Director at WHO headquarters in Geneva. In February 2013, she joined the Government of India’s Ministry of Health & Family Welfare as Advisor for International Health, where her principal task was to strengthen global health outcomes and to take forward the international health agenda.

Regional Director of WHO South-East Asia Singh’s term as the regional director of the South-East Asia Region of the World Health Organization is defined by the maxim "Sustain. Accelerate. Innovate." Each element complements her original "One by Four" plan and the seven (later eight) Flagship Priorities that have anchored region-wide progress since 2014.

Her term ended in 2023, and she was succeeded by Saima Wazed, who took over the position as the new Regional Director.

Honours National Order of Merit (Bhutan), First Class (17 December 2023).

Selected works and publications