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India will take a leadership role at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) after the annual meeting of the world health body next month, people familiar with the development told the Hindustan Times.
The nomination of India’s nominee as chairman of the WHO executive board will come at a time when the world and the United Nations agency are fighting to stop the spread of the highly contagious pathogen Sars-Cov-2.
The Covid-19 pandemic has already killed more than 180,000 people worldwide and infected 2.6 million, forcing countries to go into lockdown mode that could cost the world more than $ 1 trillion this year.
India will assume the leadership position on May 22 at the first executive board meeting after the truncated World Health Assembly conference. India replaces Japan, which will complete its one-year term in crucial work in May, diplomats in Delhi and Geneva confirmed to HT.
Last year it was decided that the position of chairperson would come to India when the WHO South-East Asia group unanimously proposed New Delhi to the executive board for a period of three years.
The group also nominated India for the position of rotating chairman for one year among regional groups. That decision was made long before the world woke up to the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen that originated in China’s Wuhan and quickly spread throughout the world.
World Health Assembly session truncated
It is proposed that the World Health Assembly (WHA), which will formally elect the members of the executive board to fill vacancies, be held on May 18. But it will be a much shorter version of what was previously proposed with 60 agenda items. Now there will only be three.
In addition to the opening of the assembly session, WHA will have a speech by Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that will focus on the preparation and response of Covid-19. The assembly will then move to formally elect the members of the executive board and the president, including India.
Post of President of the WHO Executive Board
As head of the 34-member Executive Board, the Indian nominee would have to work closely with Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The board, said a diplomat familiar with WHO’s work, is after all mandated to implement the decisions and policies established by the World Health Assembly.
For all practical purposes, this implies that the WHO Director-General has to get the president on board for all major decisions, the diplomat said.
India will also be a member of the program’s budget and administration committee, replacing Indonesia.
At the WHO, a government official said, India is on the side of transparency and accountability in the Covid-19 outbreak and reforms at the WHO.
WHO Executive Board
By virtue of being on the executive board for three years, India will also have something to say in the shortlist of the next WHO director-general when Tedros Adhanom’s five-year term ends in May 2021.
The 34-member executive board is mandated to interview candidates to decide who will remain in the race and face elections in the health assembly.
Previously, the executive board used to have the last word on the appointment of the WHO Director-General for all practical purposes. It would select the CEO and send the nomination to the General Assembly for a formal investigation.
But this process changed and the executive board was told to narrow the list of candidates. This short list went to the annual ministerial meeting of the 194 WHO member states, the World Health Assembly, to be chosen among the top three candidates by secret ballot.
This change followed harsh criticism that former WHO Director-General Margaret Chan had to face due to the agency’s slow response to the devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa that spread through one of the world’s poorest regions in 2013 and killed 11,000, according to Reuters news agency.
Tedros Adhanom, and the criticism of Covid-19
Like his predecessor, Tedros Adhanom has also faced a barrage of criticism for WHO’s initial handling of Covid-19. Unlike the Ebola that had impacted Africa, Covid-19 has affected the richest countries in the world. The United States is the most affected country, with more than 46,500 coronavirus deaths and 840,000 infections.
His critics, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, head this list, accusing the WHO chief of minimizing the disease at the behest of China and of giving the world and the United States erroneous advice.
It was hinted that Tedros Adhanom was guided by China’s hand because Beijing had backed his candidacy in 2017. Tedros Adhanom rejected the allegations and suggestions that the WHO reacted slowly.
Tedros Adhanom was elected in 2017 at the end of an election campaign that, according to The Guardian, was chased by slings and turns. David Nabarro, a professor of global health at Imperial College who had been a UN envoy for Ebola, was his main rival. The United States had endorsed David Nabarro, who was designated as a special envoy for the WHO DG at Covid-19 in February.
WHO Covid-19 Outlook
Tedros Adhanom has declared that the global coronavirus crisis will not end soon.
Make no mistake: we have a long way to go. This virus will be with us for a long time, “he said.
“Most countries are still in the early stages of their epidemics. And some who were affected at the start of the pandemic are now beginning to see a resurgence in cases, ”he said.
