After poor response to Ebola, WHO to elect new chief for Africa office
New chief to be elected for continent's UN health watchdog amid criticism that many appointments are politically motivated
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 04 November, 2014, 9:52pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 05 November, 2014, 3:45am
Associated Press in London
Health workers deal with the body of man suspected to have died of Ebola in Liberia, one of the worst affected countries. Photo: AP
After acknowledging that it bungled the response to the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, the World Health Organisation is electing a new regional director for its Africa office this week. Critics say it's about time.
WHO Africa is widely acknowledged to be the UN health agency's weakest regional office. In an internal draft document obtained last month, WHO blamed its staff in Africa for initially botching the response to Ebola, describing many of its regional staff as "politically motivated appointments" and noted numerous complaints about WHO officials in West Africa.
WHO has six regional offices including Africa - all are largely autonomous and do not answer to the Geneva headquarters.
Whoever is chosen as Africa's new WHO head probably won't have a big role in ending Ebola since the UN has already taken charge of control efforts, but the new director could be key to preventing similar disasters in the future.
First, its structure must be overhauled, experts say.
"Everyone working in global health knows that if you want anything done in the African region, the last people you go to is [WHO] Africa," said Kelley Lee, an associate dean in health sciences at Simon Fraser University in Canada, who has studied the governance of public health agencies.
She said the WHO Africa office was plagued by a profound lack of transparency and said many top jobs were doled out as political favours.
The outgoing director of WHO Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has declined numerous interview requests. Having already served two terms as regional director, he is ineligible to run again in the elections held at a committee meeting in Benin this week.
There are five candidates jostling to be the new Africa director: Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele, a Congolese doctor in charge of the vaccination programme at WHO Geneva; Mali's Dr Fatoumata Nafo Traore, director of the Roll Back Malaria partnership; Dorothee Akoko Kinde-Gazard, Benin's health minister; Therese N'Dri Yoman of Cote d'Ivoire, a past health minister; and Dr Matshidiso Moeti of Botswana, who previously ran the country's epidemiology department.
In a speech at the Benin meeting on Monday, WHO chief Dr Margaret Chan Fu-chun, a former Hong Kong health minister, stayed away from any critical remarks and instead thanked Sambo for his "years of dedication to WHO and to the health of the African people".
Some experts doubted that whoever is elected as new WHO Africa head would do much to change the stagnant culture there.
"There is no appetite for reform among senior WHO leaders," said Dr Donald A. Henderson, who headed the agency's smallpox eradication efforts. He called the WHO Africa office "completely out of touch" and said it was so bereft of competent people when Ebola in Guinea was identified in March that "there was no one left to raise the alarm".
