Member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday re-elected the Ethiopian head of the body for a second five-year term as Director General.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was the only candidate for the election during the 75th World Health Assembly held in Geneva, Switzerland.
A former Health minister in his native Ethiopia, Ghebreyesus was first elected in 2017 but attracted criticism from then US president Donald Trump as a puppet of China.
“Today’s vote is the culmination of an election process that began in April 2021 when member states were asked to nominate candidates. In January 2022, the Executive Board of the WHO had proposed Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to again occupy the position of Director General”, the organisation’s website explains.
Dr. Ghebreyesus’s new mandate begins on August 16, 2022.
According to the procedural rules of the WHO, the mandate of its Director General can only be renewed once.
During his first mandate, the former head of Ethiopian diplomacy (2012 – 2016) initiated “a profound transformation of the WHO so that it is more efficient and can thus obtain an impact in the countries in order to promote the health, to better protect people in emergency situations and to make access to health more equitable”.
In addition, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “led the WHO response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ebola virus disease outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the health consequences of multiple other humanitarian crises”, the WHO statement says.
Prior to WHO, he also served as Chairman of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
He was also Chairman of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership Board and Chairman of the Maternal Health Partnership Board, newborns and children.
ID/ggl/as/APA