Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, addresses the media during a media conference in Gammarth, northeastern Tunisia. In a speech on Monday, Chan stayed away from any critical remarks about outgoing director of WHO Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo, and instead thanked him for his “years of dedication.”LONDON – After acknowledging that it bungled the response to the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, the World Health Organization 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 U.N. health agency’s weakest regional office. In an internal draft document obtained by the Associated Press 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 of them are largely autonomous and do not answer to the Geneva headquarters. The U.N. agency was intentionally set up as a fragmented organization in 1948 because it was feared existing regional health organizations wouldn’t want to join WHO unless they had a high degree of independence.
Whoever is chosen as Africa’s new WHO head probably won’t have a big role in ending Ebola since the U.N. 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.