This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
WHO nominates three candidates for director-general
The WHO Executive Board narrowed a list of nominees to be its next director-general to three candidates.
David N. Nabarro, BM, BCh, of the United Kingdom; Sania Nishtar, PhD, of Pakistan; and Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, will face a vote by WHO member states in May during the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The winner will assume office as the eighth elected director-general on July 1.
Nabarro, Nishtar and Tedros were picked from a short list of candidates that also included Italy’s Flavia Bustreo, MD, and France’s Philippe Douste-Blazy, MD.
Nabarro, aged 67 years, serves as an advisor for the United Nations’ sustainable development and climate change agenda and as a special representative of the UN’s for food security and nutrition. In the past, he led an advisory group to reform WHO’s response to outbreaks and emergencies, was a member of the WHO commission on ending childhood obesity and was a special envoy for the UN during the West African Ebola outbreak.
Nishtar, aged 53 years, is the founder and president of Heartfile, a nonprofit NGO think tank focused on improving health systems in Pakistan. She chairs a WHO commission on ending childhood obesity and has held several positions in the Pakistani government. She stepped down as chair of a UN panel on women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health after announcing her candidacy for director-general.
If selected, Tedros, aged 51 years, would be the first African to lead WHO. He was Ethiopia’s minister of foreign affairs from 2012 to 2016 and minister of health from 2005 to 2012. He is a past chair of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and UNAIDS.
Current WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, was appointed for a second 5-year term in May 2012. She has held the position since Jan. 4, 2007. – by Gerard Gallagher