World Health Assembly re-elects Tedros Ghebreyesus as WHO DG

The World Health Organisation (WHO) member states have  re-elected Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to serve a second five-year term as Director-General of the organisation. Dr Tedros was first elected in 2017.

His re-election was confirmed during the ongoing 75^th World Health Assembly in Geneva. He was the sole candidate.

Addressing the assembly soon after his re-election, Dr.Tedros said: “I am humbled by the opportunity provided by Member States to serve a second term as WHO Director-General. This honour, though, comes with great responsibility and I am committed to working with all countries, my colleagues around the world, and our valued partners, to ensure WHO delivers on its mission to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.”

He told the assembly that WHO’s focus will be on emergency preparedness and improvement of the agency, stressing the need to implement the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This pandemic has been very unprecedented and many lessons that we should learn and we are learning. But, at the same time we cannot just pause, learn and implement…instead of pausing to learn, we’re saying while learning let’s implement.”

Dr Tedros’s new mandate officially commences on 16 August 2022. A Director-General can be re-appointed once, in accordance with World Health Assembly rules and procedures.

During his first term, he  instituted a wide-ranging Transformation of the WHO, aimed at increasing the Organization’s efficiency driving impact at 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.

The DG has been receiving congratulatory messages from countries across the world.