Readers,

By the end of this week, the nominations for the candidates to lead the World Health Organization will close.

In today's guest essay, we bring you a perspective from a physician with extensive on the ground expertise, on what it is needed to steer the UN's only technical agency in the midst of deep shifts in global health.

Author Sivakumaran (“Shiva”) Murgasampillay, a global public health physician with decades of experience in strengthening health systems at district, national, regional and international levels, lays out the the complexity that the role of the Director-General of the WHO demands. He locates these elections in the wider trends in global health and outside, and fluently describes the terrain that any DG must navigate, both technical, operational and political.

He also provides a nuanced argument on why the ideal candidate "should not just be doctor", but one who also understands public health, and what it would take to deliver the responsibilities of this role. "A medical degree should not become an inflexible criterion," he says.

His analysis gives you an indication on why there are only four candidates in the race so far! We hope you find this comprehensive piece timely and insightful. Anyone who has anything to do with these elections must read this. Highly recommended.

(The house view at Geneva Health Files is that qualifications should not be an exclusionary criterion, we are but mere observers to this process!)

In case you missed it, our earlier story on the elections: People, Process, Politics: The Election of the Director-General of The World Health Organization.

Geneva Health Files offers value to our readers who are experts in global health. Tracking global health policy-making in Geneva is tough and expensive, without institutional support. For six years, we have provided you with the information and tools that directly contribute to your work in the field. We rely on our readers who value news they can use.

By becoming a paying subscriber you make our work possible and help us gather, report and synthesise global health intelligence.

Thank you for your engagement.

Best,

Priti

Priti Patnaik, Founder & Publisher, Geneva Health Files

Feel free to write to us: genevahealthfiles@gmail.com ; Find us on BlueSky, Instagram and Linkedin.

Presenting our weekly in-depth analysis on global health that captures the big picture and the nuances like no one else does. This is an exclusive edition for our subscribers.

I. GUEST ESSAY

WHO’s Next DG Should Be A Medical Doctor, Public Health Leader & Health-Systems Expert

By Sivakumaran (“Shiva”) Murgasampillay

Shiva is a veteran public health physician with over 40 years of experience across national and regional levels. He has also worked towards global public health and universal health service delivery. He can be reached at shivapublichealth@gmail.com.

The 2027 election of the WHO Director-General comes at a critical moment for national, regional and global public health coordinated structures, competent work force and systems.

Member States should look beyond political representation, diplomatic credentials and administrative experience. Countries should prioritise a senior dynamic public health professional leader who understands medical and health service delivery from the people and community, patient and primary health care to the district and national and international health systems.

Ideally, that leader should combine medical and public health academic and vocational qualifications with practical national health service delivery and systems experience and competencies with WHO experience.

Key messages

The next WHO Director-General should ideally combine medical and, public health qualification with professional leadership and management and practical health system strengthening skills.
Experience working within a national health service or health systems is particularly important because WHO global public health relevance ultimately succeeds or fails through country ownership and implementation to scale.
Substantial experience within WHO itself, ideally across country, regional and global levels, would add essential understanding of how the UN lead international health coordination organizations works and global public health policy and systems are translated into action.
A medical degree may not be an absolute eligibility requirement; rather, medical, public health, health system and WHO experience should be treated as highly desirable qualifications alongside health professional skills, ethics, leadership, governance and management and independence.