GENEVA Switzerland
World Health Organization Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is all but guaranteed a second term after a procedural vote made him the sole nominee for a leadership election in May 2022.
The first African leader of the United Nations
health agency said he was “very grateful for the renewed support”, after the
WHO’s executive board held a secret-ballot vote on Tuesday approving his
nomination as the only candidate for the post of director-general.
“I am actually lost for words,” the visibly moved
WHO chief said after nearly all of the board’s 34 members, representing
countries from around the world, threw their weight behind him.
He was only missing three votes: from absentees
Tonga, Afghanistan and East Timor, according to a diplomatic source.
The former Ethiopian minister of health and foreign
affairs is thus expected to be re-elected when all 194 WHO member states cast
their ballots in May for the next director-general.
Tedros, one of the most recognisable figures of the
global battle against COVID-19, acknowledged that his first five-year term had
been “challenging and difficult”, and said it was a “great honour” to be given
the opportunity to continue the battle.
Since the coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, the
56-year-old malaria specialist has received much praise for the way he has
steered the WHO through the crisis.
“We appreciate not only your leadership during this
period, but also your humanity and your compassion,” South Korean
representative Kim Ganglip said, speaking for WHO’s western Pacific region.
African countries have been pleased with the
attention paid to the continent and at his relentless campaign for poorer
nations to receive a fair share of COVID-19 vaccines.
The main source of opposition against Tedros has come
from his own country.
Recently, Tedros, an ethnic Tigrayan, has come
under new criticism from Ethiopia’s government, which has been fighting armed
fighters in Tigray, for his comments on Twitter and elsewhere that condemned
Ethiopia’s blockade of international access to Tigray.
He said WHO had not been allowed to send any
humanitarian aid to the region since July, and has called for “unfettered”
humanitarian access to Tigray, whose people are facing enormous hunger amid the
war.
Ethiopia’s government, in a January 14 news
release, said it had sent a letter to WHO accusing Tedros of “misconduct” after
his sharp criticism of the war and the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of
Africa country.
Despite Addis Ababa blocking the African Union from
unanimously presenting Tedros as its nominee before Tuesday’s vote, several
African countries figured among the 28 mainly European nations that officially
put his name forward.
Tedros’s second term will likely be dominated by
the towering task of strengthening the WHO, after COVID-19 exposed its
weaknesses.
“The pandemic has highlighted the challenges we
face; that the world was not prepared,” he said during a two-hour hearing
before Tuesday’s vote.
Many countries are demanding significant reforms,
but their extent and shape have yet to be defined, with some nations wary a
stronger WHO might encroach on their sovereignty.
Tedros is also calling for a vast reform of
financing, warning funds are lacking to respond to the numerous crises WHO
faces around the globe.
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