Director-General André van der Zande of the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, RIVM was named Vice President and member of the Executive Board of IANPHI at its 2017 Annual Meeting in October in Rome, Italy.

IANPHI is the International Association of National Public Health Institutes with approximately 100 member organisations from 88 nations. Preventing, detecting, and responding to diseases and other public health threats are more important now than ever before, and National Public Health Institutes play a critical role in each of these tasks.

The 2017 annual meeting gave opportunity to NPHI's to share experiences and best practices.  More than hundred IANPHI members, partners and representatives from national centers and NGOs took part and  discussed the future of Public Health. Next to André van der Zande, Ebba Abbate, Director of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute and Lothar Wieler, Director of the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, were appointed as IANPHI’s newest Executive Board members.

Extra affirmation

In 2016, RIVM commissioned an evaluation by IANPHI. This peer-to-peer evaluation focused on the entire organisation, providing very valuable insights. The evaluation team’s recommendations provided extra affirmation for the strategic direction RIVM started in 2012. Furthermore, they were embedded in the ongoing work processes of RIVM.