UN Chronicle | New Appointments at the World Health Organization

New Appointments at the WHO:
Dr.Jong Wook Lee to Lead WHO as Director-General
By Nuchhi R. Currier for the Chronicle

Web Article

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) made a final nomination on 28 January 2003 from a shortlist of five candidates for the post of Director-General. Dr. Jong Wook Lee, competing against Dr. Peter Piot of Belgium, Professor Ismail Sallam of Egypt, Dr. Julio Frenk of Mexico and Dr. Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi of Mozambique, won the nomination to head WHO for five years starting 21 July 2003.

The Executive Board, comprising 32 nations and currently headed by Professor Kyaw Myint, heard oral presentations of each candidate's vision of the Organization's future, its priorities and challenges, and questioned each candidate closely. The Director-General is the chief technical and administrative officer of WHO and sets the policy for its international health work. Dr. Lee will succeed Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland who in August last year announced she would not seek another term.

Dr. Lee, born in 1945 in Seoul, the Republic of Korea, received his Medical Degree from Seoul National University and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Hawaii. A veteran of WHO having worked there for nineteen years in technical, managerial and policy positions, Dr. Lee is best known for his leadership role in the fight against two of the greatest challenges to health and development: tuberculosis and vaccine-preventable diseases of children.

After heading the WHO Global Programme for Vaccines and Immunizations and serving as a Senior Policy Advisor, Dr. Lee became Director in 2000 of the Stop TB Programme, a coalition of more than 250 international partners which include WHO Member States, donors, non-governmental organizations, industry and foundations. His impressive qualifications satisfy the criteria set by the Executive Board which requires the nominee to have a strong technical and public health background and extensive experience in international health, competency in organizational management, proven historical evidence for public health leadership, sensitiveness to cultural, social, and political differences, a strong commitment to the work of WHO and sufficient skills in at least one of the official and working languages of the Executive Board and Health Assembly. Dr. Lee's nomination will be submitted for approval to the 56th World Health Assembly, which meets in Geneva from 19 to 28 May 2003.

Dr. Mitra Roses Periago becomes the First Woman to Lead WHO in the Americas

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization made another important announcement. Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, selected last September by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to the post of Director, will replace Dr. George Alleyne, whose five year term ends on 31 January. She has the double distinction of being the first woman to lead the regional American office of the WHO as well as being the first Argentine in this position. Dr. Roses served most recently as the Assistant Director of PAHO in charge of all technical cooperation programmes as well as the Organization's Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief Coordination Programme. She will take her oath of office on Friday 31 January 2003 in Washington.

The World Health Organization, the United Nations specialized agency for health, was established in April 1948 and is governed by 192 Member States through its World Health Assembly. Its objective is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health is defined in the WHO constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

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