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As embattled WHO faces ‘existential crisis’, finalists to replace Hong Kong’s Margaret Chan at helm are named

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Margaret Chan, General Director of the World Health Organisation, speaks at the start of the 140th session of the Executive Board of the WHO, at the organisation's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday. Photo: EPA

The list of candidates to replace Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun as leader of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and rebuild its battered reputation has been whittled down to three, with a final choice due in May.

The high-stakes choice comes as the powerful agency faces what has been described as an “existential crisis”, after 10 years with Chan, the former Hong Kong health director, at the reins. The agency has come under fire for the agency’s sluggish reaction to the African Ebola epidemic, which spread across one of the world’s poorest regions, killing thousands of people.

Chan’s second five-year term ends on June 30.

After a day of interviews with the WHO executive board in Geneva on Wednesday, those left in the running were Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, medical doctor David Nabarro who served as UN envoy on Ebola, and Sania Nishtar, the Pakistani founder of a health think tank Heartfelt who served one year as a federal minister.

The final choice is to be made by the World Health Assembly, the annual ministerial gathering of WHO’s 194 member states held from May 22-31.
The 140th session of the Executive Board of the WHO, at organisation’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday. Photo: AP
The 140th session of the Executive Board of the WHO, at organisation’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday. Photo: AP

Some public health policy experts called for a leader with political experience to revive the WHO’s international standing and bring in funding for flagship programmes.

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