Director of who - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the current director-general (DG) of the World Health Organization (WHO), is set to be re-elected for his second term uncontested. He wad formerly the minister of health and family welfare of Ethiopia and was elected as the WHO-DG May 23, 2017.
His term began on July 1, 2017.
He currently has the backing of 28 member states — 17 from the European Union and three from Africa among others, including Austria, France, Kenya, Germany, Sweden, Spain and Greece.
Ethiopia, however, has refused to back him over the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the northern Tigray region, where Ghebreyesus was born. While the DG has spoken about the unfolding civil war in Ethiopia, his home country has accused him of supporting the Tigrayan forces, which he has denied.
The United States, United Kingdom and China are among the
Some have even argued that the WHO was favouring China, who in turn has reportedly been unhappy with Ghebreyesus’s statement on the need for a deeper investigation into the virus’ origins. All these factors notwithstanding, Ghebreyesus remains the sole choice.
“What I think he (Ghebreyesus) continues to do very well is to manage the political tensions between member states and all the different demands that are pulling in one direction or the other. The clearest one, of course, is between the United States and China, certainly in the earliest months of the pandemic,” Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute Geneva, was quoted as saying in The Lancet.
Ghebreyesus’ steadfast stance on vaccine inequity and his push for a pandemic accord may have worked in his favour. Meanwhile, some experts argue that there probably aren’t a lot of contenders for what is clearly a very tough job.lion).
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