WHO Board Trims Candidates For Director To Five; Two More Cuts Tomorrow

World Health Organization members took the first step toward choosing the next director general of the UN health agency today as they narrowed the candidates to five. There will be interviews held with the remaining candidates tomorrow, after which the list will be reduced to three until the May World Health Assembly.

Dr. Miklós Szócska of Hungary was the first to go in a vote today, and will be followed by two more tomorrow.

Tomorrow, 25 January, the Executive Board will interview the remaining candidates and shorten the list to three nominees, by vote. The names will be announced in the evening of 25 January.

The full WHO membership will choose among the three nominees by vote at the annual World Health Assembly in May. The new director-general will take office on 1 July 2017.

The short list now consists of the following candidates:

1. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ethiopia)
   • http://www.who.int/dg/election/tedros/en/

1. Dr Flavia Bustreo (Italy)
   • http://www.who.int/dg/election/bustreo/en/

1. Professor Philippe Douste-Blazy (France)
   • http://www.who.int/dg/election/blazy/en/

1. Dr David Nabarro (United Kingdom)
   • http://www.who.int/dg/election/nabarro/en/

1. Dr Sania Nishtar (Pakistan)
   • http://www.who.int/dg/election/nishtar/en/

The outcome is hard to predict. The vote count in today’s closed Board meeting were as follows, according to sources:

Ghebreyesus 34
Bustreo 33
Nishtar 32
Nbarro 30
Douste-Blazy 28
Szócska 13

The Board consists of 34 WHO members in rotating terms of office.

IP-Watch reporting on interviews with the candidates is here (IPW, WHO, 10 November 2016)

More information from WHO is here: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2017/initial-list-candidates/en/

Candidates’ plans for “tackling unaffordable medicines and the lack of innovation in their priority areas” was issued by six civil society groups and published on infojustice.org here.

In a separate action today, the Executive Board appointed Dr Mahmoud Fikri, from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO), following his nomination by the Regional Committee for EMRO in October last year.