The World Health Organisation (WHO) member states have re-elected the director-general of the organisation, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus to serve a second five-year term. Dr. Tedros was first elected to lead the world’s leading public health agency in 2017.
His re-election was confirmed during the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva. He was the sole candidate.
His re-emergence was the culmination of an election process that began in April 2021 when member states were invited to submit proposals for candidates for the post of director-general. The WHO executive board, meeting in January 2022, nominated Dr. Tedros to stand for a second term.
Tedros’s new mandate officially commences on August 16, 2022. A director-general can be re-appointed once, under World Health Assembly rules and procedures.
During his first term, Dr. Tedros instituted wide-ranging transformation of the WHO, aimed at increasing the organisation’s efficiency driving impact at the country level to promote healthier lives, protect more people in emergencies and increase equitable access to health. He also guided WHO’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, outbreaks of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the health impacts of multiple other humanitarian crises.
Before first being appointed WHO director-general, Dr. Tedros served as Ethiopia’s minister of foreign affairs, from 2012 to 2016 and as that country’s minister of health from 2005 to 2012. Also, he served as chair of the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partnership board and as co-chair of the board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.
