Election of new WHO Regional Director for Africa candidates to present plan of action on July 22

To strengthen transparency around the election of the next World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the African Region, a live forum of candidates will be held on Monday 22 July 2024 from 09:30am−4pm.

The forum, which will be presided by Hon Edwin Dikoloti, Minister of Health of Botswana and current Chair of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, was agreed by WHO Member States in the Region. Candidates will be given platform to detail their experience and expertise, and to present the vision of what they hope to achieve during their tenure to deliver on the core mandates of WHO in the African Region.

The four candidates (in country alphabetical order) are: Dr Boureima Hama Sambo, proposed by Niger, Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall, proposed by Senegal, Dr Richard Mihigo, proposed by Rwanda and  Dr Faustine Engelbert Ndugulile, proposed by Tanzania. The candidates will each give a presentation of no more than 20 minutes.

Each Member State joining the virtual forum may ask questions if it so wishes. Member States are invited to indicate the candidate(s) to whom they wish to ask a question by writing to the Regional Office at the email address: GoverningBodiesAfro@who.int  no later than 15 July 2024, at 17:00 Brazzaville Time. The tokens bearing the names of the Member States wishing to ask questions will be put in the relevant bags (one for each candidate.) Member States that nominated a candidate are expected to not ask the candidate they nominated a question.

After each candidate has made an oral presentation, the Chair will pick the tokens randomly, one-by-one, until the time available is exhausted. After each token is drawn, the corresponding Member States will be invited to ask a question, and the candidate invited to provide an answer.

Member States will have up to one minute to ask one question only. Multiple part questions will not be permitted. Candidates will have up to three minutes to respond to each question. Each interview will conclude when the 40 minutes for the interview have elapsed, even if there are pending questions. However, a candidate will be permitted to complete their answer to the question being addressed when the 40 minutes elapse.

The event will be livestreamed in English, French and Portuguese on WHO Regional Office for Africa social media channels and website through the links below:

Ingrid Kengne/WHO