Six candidates running for next Director General of WHO present their visions and priorities

Oct 17 2016

Six candidates are running for next Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Lancet asked them each for personal statements and answers to ten questions about their candidacy, global health, and priorities for WHO. The six candidates are Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ethiopia), Flavia Bustreo (Italy), Philippe Douste-Blazy (France), David Nabarro (UK), Sania Nishtar (Pakistan) and Miklós Szócska (Hungary).

Introducing the Special Report, Richard Horton, Editor-in-chief of The Lancet and Udani Samarasekera, Senior Editor write:

The forthcoming election of the next Director-General of WHO comes at a critical moment not only for the world’s only multilateral health agency but also for the precarious trajectory of global health itself… As the world enters a new era— that of the Sustainable Development Goals—the Director-General has an essential voice in shaping the meaning of health in an era of human dislocation, pervasive inequality, mass migration, ecological degradation, climate change, war, and humanitarian crisis. Six excellent candidates for Director-General are standing. All have wide experience in health, as one would expect, but each offers a very different platform.

The ten questions that The Lancet asked each candidate were:

1. What would be your priorities as Director-General of WHO?
2. WHO cannot do everything. What should WHO not do?
3. What are the three biggest threats to the health of peoples across the world?
4. What would you do to tackle those threats?
5. What does sustainable development mean to you, and how can WHO make the greatest contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals?
6. WHO lost credibility over its handling of the Ebola virus outbreak. What must WHO do to rebuild the trust of governments and their citizens?
7. Does WHO need further reform? If so, what reforms would you implement?
8. What are the biggest threats facing WHO in the next 5 years? How will you address these threats?
9. Should WHO be a leader in health or should it only respond to the wishes of member-states?
10. What unique skills would you bring to the job of WHO Director-General?