WHO speeds up director-general appointment process
The executive board of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that Dr Lee Jong-wook's successor as director-general will be elected through an "accelerated process" on 9 November.
The executive board of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that Dr Lee Jong-wook's successor as director-general will be elected through an "accelerated process" on 9 November.
The board has waived a rule that normally allows for a six-month nomination process and will instead interview a short-list of five candidates from 6-8 November, before voting on the appointment at a one-day special session of the World Health Assembly on the ninth.
Dr Anders Nordstroem, acting director-general following the sudden death of Dr Lee, aged 61, on 22 May, will notify Member States that they may propose candidates from 1 June. Proposals can be accepted by the WHO Secretariat until 5 September, and will be dispatched to all Member States by 5 October. Nordstroem will remain acting director-general until the new director-general takes office.
Dr Lee died following his admittance to hospital on the 20th May for surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain. He had been director general since July 2003 and had worked for WHO for 23 years, at country and regional levels, and at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Siwtzerland.