After poor response to Ebola, WHO to elect new chief for Africa office
New chief to be elected for continent's UN health watchdog amid criticism that many appointments are politically motivated
After acknowledging that it bungled the response to the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, the World Health Organisation is electing a new regional director for its Africa office this week. Critics say it's about time.
WHO Africa is widely acknowledged to be the UN health agency's weakest regional office. In an internal draft document obtained last month, WHO blamed its staff in Africa for initially botching the response to Ebola, describing many of its regional staff as "politically motivated appointments" and noted numerous complaints about WHO officials in West Africa.
WHO has six regional offices including Africa - all are largely autonomous and do not answer to the Geneva headquarters.
Whoever is chosen as Africa's new WHO head probably won't have a big role in ending Ebola since the UN has already taken charge of control efforts, but the new director could be key to preventing similar disasters in the future.
First, its structure must be overhauled, experts say.
"Everyone working in global health knows that if you want anything done in the African region, the last people you go to is [WHO] Africa," said Kelley Lee, an associate dean in health sciences at Simon Fraser University in Canada, who has studied the governance of public health agencies.