Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus re-elected to second term as WHO Director-General

Geneva, May 25, 2022

World Health Organization (WHO) member-states on Tuesday re-elected Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to serve a second five-year term as Director-General of the world’s leading public health agency.

Tedros was first elected in 2017.

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

Today’s vote was the culmination of an election process that began in April 2021 when Member States were invited to submit proposals for candidates for the post of Director-General. The WHO Executive Board, meeting in January 2022, nominated Tedros to stand for a second term.

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.

A press release from WHO said that, during his first term, Tedros 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.

Before first being appointed WHO Director-General, Tedros served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia from 2012–2016 and as Minister of Health, Ethiopia from 2005–2012.

He had also served as chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board; and as co-chair of the Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

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