Alaa Abdessaheb al-Alwan

Ala Abdessaheb al-Alwan (born 1949) was Minister of Education in the cabinet appointed by the Interim Iraq Governing Council in September 2003, and Minister of Health in the Iraqi Interim Government. He left Iraq in 2005 back to the World Health Organization (WHO) as Assistant Director General based in Geneva, Switzerland. In October 2011, he was elected by Member States for the position of Regional 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.

A Muslim and native of Baghdad, al-Alwan was dean of the College of Medicine at Al-Mustansiriya University, Baghdad until 1992, when he joined the staff of the WHO. At the WHO he served as Director of Health Services for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, WHO Representative in Oman and Jordan, and the Director of the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

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Preceded by Coalition Provisional Authority	Minister of Health September 2003–June 2004	Succeeded by Sami Mudahfar
Preceded by Khodayyir Abbas	Minister of Health June 2004–May 2005	Succeeded by Abdel Muttalib Mohammed Ali