Dr. Tedros has won the election to become the first ever African to head WHO and will be taking over on July 1st
Words: Vandana Devi Images: Various Sources
“Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was nominated by the Government of Ethiopia, and will begin his five-year term on 1 July 2017”, WHO said in a statement after the elections where WHO elected its first ever African Director-General. Ever since WHO’s inception some seven decades ago, no African has ever held this position. Tedros will be the first African to head one of the most powerful UN agencies that employs around 8000 people across the world.
He will be taking over from Margaret Chan, who will end her 10-year tenure by the end of June. Margaret Chan in her two term stint since January 2007, had to tackle global public health crises such as H1N1 (swine flu), Ebola and so on.
This election in yet another first, had all WHO member-states participate in the voting process. From five candidates, the list was narrowed down to three selected by the WHO Executive Board in January and Tedros emerged victorious in the final vote with 133 votes.
Tedros worked as both Ethiopia’s Health Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister. He is also a malaria expert who will now have to tackle challenges like the spread of the Zika virus, Ebola along with existing public health concerns like malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS etc. He also stressed on the need for Member states to provide healthcare for all and to implement international health regulations. “All roads should lead to universal health coverage. I will not rest until we have met this”, Tedros promised.