The World Health Organization announced that three finalists are in the running for the position of the next director general of the global health organization. Dr. Sania Nisthar, 53, of Pakistan, Dr. David Nabarro, 67, of Britain and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, 51, of Ethiopia were selected as the final three contenders for the position. The election for the global agency’s eight director general will take place in May. During that time, 194 members will convene in Geneva for the annual general meeting named the World Health Assembly.
The candidates are vying to take the leadership role of UN’s leading health agency. Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust said that there is a big job on the hands of whoever wins the leadership of the agency. The WHO will need to make a case for greater investment in public health. The new leader will need to be fearless and call out countries that fail to play their part.
According to Farrar, this is the time for decisive and inspirational leadership. The candidates are expected to present their course of action on how they plan to give leadership to the organization in the months remaining before the World Health Assembly convenes in Geneva.
The position of leadership carries a five year term and originally there were six candidates vying for the position. However the WHO’s executive board, following rules set out for this election, had pared the list down to five. Dr. Miklos Szocska of Hungary was knocked out of the race. The remaining candidates were interviewed behind closed doors. The list was further winnowed down to three after a vote by the 34-member executive board according to a report by STAT.
Whoever will be elected by the member states faces the daunting challenge of transforming the cumbersome 69-year-old agency with a total of 7,000 employees into a number and better funded organization. The task is to ready the organization to prevent the next pandemic, take on the spread of superbugs and to stamp out the devastating effects of tobacco use.
According to Michael Merson, director of Duke Global Health Institute, three finalists leave us with a very balanced field. The challenge for the candidates now is to present a plan and their vision on how to reestablish WHO’s leadership in global health. Public experts and the candidates have stressed that the World Health Organization needs stronger leadership and accountability to gain public trust in order to acquire sustainable funding from governments as reported by Politico.
