Tanzania's Mohamed Janabi picked to head WHO Africa

Zawya

20-05-2025

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Sunday nominated Tanzania's Prof Mohamed Janabi to be its new regional director for Africa, beating three other candidates from French-speaking West African countries.
Prof Janabi, 63, received 32 of the 46 country votes in just one ballot round at the special nomination session convened by the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Geneva.
He is filling the vacancy left by Dr Faustine Ndugulile, also from Tanzania, who had won the nomination in August last year, but died unexpectedly in November before he could assume office.
The other candidates in the virtual election were Dr Michel N'da Konan Yao (Cote d'Ivoire), Dr Mohamed Lamine Dramé (Guinea) and Prof Moustafa Mijiyawa (Togo).
The election proceedings were transmitted virtually for public viewing for the first time in keeping with WHO's new transparency guidelines.
Delegates from the various countries congratulated Prof Janabi after the vote, saying they had been particularly impressed by his 'visionary' plan to bring African countries together to navigate the new financing challenges facing the continent's healthcare programmes, and by the 'passion' he showed in presenting it.
The election took place at a time of major restructuring within the entire WHO structure, prompted by the United States' withdrawal from the organisation earlier this year, taking with it a big chunk of funding support.
Prof Janabi's proposed solution, which appears to have resonated with the majority of the voting countries, is to develop a strategy for pooling the resources of each WHO Africa member state — big and small — and to devise a programme of collaboration so that no country is left behind.'Our challenge in Africa is not a one size fits all,' he said. 'Some countries are already well ahead of others in terms of progress in their healthcare sectors, and there is also the question of differences in levels of economic growth. So obviously the problems will be different for each country.''One of my first priorities will be to talk to each of the 47-member states and gauge the weaknesses and strengths of each. My intention is to do a DNA of who has what, map the many unsung resources already available among us, and build collaborations that will benefit the entire continent. This will be key to how I operate, because there is no better time to do that than now.'Read: Mohamed Janabi: Africa should be self-reliant in public healthProf Janabi's nomination is now up for endorsement by the WHO Executive Board in July, which is expected to be a mere formality.
He will then serve an initial five-year term in office, after which he is eligible for a second term of the same length.
© Copyright 2022 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).