The first African to head the World Health Organization (WHO), Ethiopian Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was re -appointed on Tuesday for a second five -year term.
Even before the vote, bets were almost made on the World Assembly to be held in Geneva, because Dr. Tedros is the only candidate to run.
I am proud to be in WHO I amhe launched, thanking the delegates.
According to some sources, he got 155 votes against 5.
A malaria specialist, graduate in immunology and community health physician, Dr. Tedros, as he likes to call himself, is Minister of Health and head of diplomacy in his country.
His face has become familiar around the world for his fight against the pandemic, which remains one of his main concerns.
After the first mandate marked COVID-19, which revealed the shortcomings ofWHO and the global health system, Drs. Tedros needs to win the challenge of strengthening UN agency, especially to better prevent and manage future epidemics.
This pandemic was completely unprecedented and we made the boat as we sailed. Hopefully we can prevent the next pandemic or manage it as effectively as possible.raised Dr. Tedros.
Being close to war
He who pretends to be a man of peace was marked by a childhood engulfed in war, but also by conflicts in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia in his first term.
” Beyond pandemics, war has shaken and destroyed foundations that were once solid and [laissent] psychological scars that can take years or decades to heal “
I am a child of warwas launched on Sunday the head ofWHOdeeply moved, at the opening of the World Health Assembly.
The sound of gunshots and bullets whistling in the air, the smell of smoke after impact, bullets in the night sky, fear, pain, loss – these things remained with me. all my life, because I was in the middle of a war when I was younghe explained.
When his mother heard gunshots in the night, he put us to sleep under the bed […] in the hope that we will be protected if a shell falls into our house.
A few years later, with the resurgence of war in Ethiopia in 1998, this fear back when it was his children’s turn hide in a bunker.
And while the Ethiopian region of Tigray, his native region, has been plagued by unrest since the end of 2020, he admits he feels the same pain again.
I’m not just a child of war, it follows me everywhere.
His childhood was also marked by the death of a brother, due to lack of medicine.
Hot, Dr. Tedros was highly valued, especially by Africans, for allowing the view of the international community, especially during a pandemic, to turn beyond this continent.
The critics
The main criticism came from his home country, where Ethiopia accuses him abuse of office after his comments on the humanitarian situation in Tigray.
The arrival of Democrat Joe Biden at the White House, who returned to the United States in the WHO fold, gave him a second wind, as he continued to be attacked by Donald Trump, who sliced food into the organization he accused of mismanagement. . the coronavirus pandemic and being too close to Beijing.
The more critical tone of Dr. Tedros towards China, which he considered not clear enough on the origin of the pandemic, got him some criticism from Beijing, which nonetheless supported its renewal.
A scandal of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo committed by employees ofWHO-among other aid workers-he nodded twice from dozens of member countries, who considered his reaction too soft and too slow.
Loyce Pace, representative of the American administration, did not fail to remind the newly elected general manager that it was not a question of resting on his achievements.
Actually, much more needs to be done to modernizeWHO to make it better and responsive and we know you are committed to ithe said, indicating a sentiment widely shared among members.
Source: Radio-Canada
