Six candidates from Africa, Asia and Europe – including one Briton – have been nominated for the position of director-general of the World Health Organisation, at a time when experts have emphasised the need for the agency to prove it can be “transparent and accountable” to the public.
The candidates include current and former government ministers and academics. Dr Philippe Douste-Blazy of France, a former health and foreign minister, makes the list, as does Ethiopia’s foreign minister – and former health minister – Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In contention too are Pakistan’s former health minister, Dr Sania Nishtar, Italy’s Dr Flavia Bustreo – currently the WHO’s assistant director-general for family, women’s and children’s health – and Hungary’s former minister of health, Dr Miklós Szócska. The UK’s Dr David Nabarro, a sustainable development adviser to UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, completes the list of contenders.
The director general is the WHO’s chief technical and administrative officer and oversees the organisation’s international health work. The successful candidate will take office in July 2017 and replace the incumbent Dr Margaret Chan, who has held the position since 2006.
Experts believe the nominees will face a tough task in proving to the international community that the WHO is still competent as an agency delivering global health, particularly given the criticism it received after 11,000 people died during the Ebola outbreak.
“The next DG has a narrow window in which to change the narrative about the WHO,” said Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and co-author of a report calling for urgent reform within the agency. “It has become an organisation that, when faced with real challenges, cannot perform.”
While Africa has openly backed Ethiopian candidate Tedros, the discussion over who should succeed Chan should focus less on “Whose turn is this?” and more on which candidate will most benefit the organisation, said Jha.
“The world needs an effective WHO – there’s no way around that,” he added. “There are things only the WHO can do. Instead of thinking about creating entities that will fill the gaps, it is in our interest to make sure the WHO can fill those gaps itself.”
-Dr Sania Nishtar-
One of only two women in the running, Nishtar is founder and president of Heartfile, a health thinktank, and co-chair of the WHO’s commission on ending childhood obesity. As a former federal minister in the Pakistan government, Nishtar has thrown herself wholeheartedly into her nomination and is the only candidate with a website devoted exclusively to her bid.
Courtesy: The Guardian
