E-DRUG: Dr Lee takes over WHO on 21 July
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[E-drug has reported about the election of Dr Lee as ew DG of WHO in the
past. Coming monday he will address all WHO staff, and introduce his
"government". Below an email that was sent to WHO staff and an editorial of
the Lancet of today.
Experienced WHO-watchers will note that Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah (Ghana),
currently Executive Director of the HTP Cluster will move to the CDS
cluster, whereas Prof Vladimir Lepakhin (Russian Federation), a former EDM
staff member and currently Head of the Department of General and Clinical
Pharmacology at the Russian University of People's Friendship, will lead the
HTP cluster.
E-drug has also learned that the current Director of EDM (Dr Jonathan Quick)
is likely to leave his position at the end of the year.
This means serious staff changes in the leadership of EDM. The discussion is
open what this means for EDM and the Essential Drug Concept.
E-drug wishes the new incumbents all the strength to defend and promote the
essential medicines concept!
Wilbert Bannenberg, E-drug moderator]
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Letter of Dr Lee to WHO staff
Dear Colleagues,
On 21 July I will start my term as Director-General of WHO. I will speak
to staff at 10.00am on that day, from the Executive Board Room, here in
headquarters. In order to ensure that all staff are able to have immediate
access to the speech, it is planned to make this available as a live
webcast on the internet from the home page of the WHO website.
During the speech, I will introduce members of my senior management team,
who will be taking office from July 21st.
The following staff will work in the Office of the Director-General:
* Denis Aitken (UK), currently Chef de Cabinet, will be Director of
the Office of the Director-General
* Liu Peilong (China), currently Director General, Department of
International Cooperation, Ministry of Health, will be Adviser to the
Director-General
* Jim Yong Kim (USA), currently Associate Professor of Medicine and
Medical Anthropology, Harvard Medical School, will be Adviser to the
Director-General
* Namita Pradhan (India), currently Office of Director-General, will
be Adviser to the Director-General
* Ian Smith (UK), currently Office of Director-General Elect, will be
Adviser to the Director-General
* Michel Jancloes (Belgium) formerly Executive Director, WHO office
for OAU/ECA and WHO Representative, Ethiopia, will be Consultant Adviser
to the Director-General
The following have accepted my invitation to lead clusters as Assistant
Directors-General:
* Anarfi Asamoa-Baah (Ghana), currently EXD HTP, for the CDS cluster
* Kazem Behbehani (Kuwait), currently DGO/EML, for the EGB cluster
* Jack Chow (USA), currently Ambassador and Deputy Assistant Secretary
for Health and Science, US State Department, for the new HIV/AIDS, TB &
Malaria (HTM) cluster
* Tim Evans (Canada), currently Director of Health Equity at the
Rockefeller Foundation in New York, for the EIP Cluster
* Catherine Le Gales-Camus (France), currently Scientific Adviser to
the Director-General of Health, France, for the NMH cluster
* Kerstin Leitner (Germany), currently UN Resident Coordinator and
UNDP Resident Representative in China, for the SDE cluster
* Vladimir Lepakhin (Russian Federation), currently Head of the
Department of General and Clinical Pharmacology, at the Russian University
of People's Friendship, for the HTP cluster
* Anders Nordstr�m (Sweden), currently Head of Health Division, SIDA,
for the GMG cluster
* Joy Phumaphi (Botswana), currently Minister of Health of the
Republic of Botswana, for the FCH cluster
In addition, I will be assigning the following Representatives, reporting
directly to the Office of the Director-General:
* David Heymann, Representative of the Director-General for Polio
Eradication
* David Nabarro, Representative of the Director-General for Health
Action in Crises
* Tomris T�rmen, Representative of the Director-General
* Derek Yach, Representative of the Director-General
There will be an opportunity for staff of each Cluster to meet with their
new ADG on the afternoon of 21 July.
In order to facilitate a smooth process leading up to and following 21
July, I have established a change management task force, incorporating
staff from DGO, DGI, GMG, the Ombudsman, and Staff Association.
Dr LEE Jong-wook
---------
[Here is the Lancet editorial of 18 July]
Editorial
WHO 2003-08: a programme of quiet thunder takes shape
In half-a-dozen cramped, airless rooms on the first floor of the
Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, only 5 minutes walk from WHO's headquarters,
Dr J W Lee's transition team has spent the past 2 months finalising
details of his accession to the office of director-general at the world's
only global health agency. 10 months after deciding to enter the
leadership race, Lee takes over from Gro Harlem Brundtland on July 21.
After a tortuous election process, Lee and his colleagues are
understandably keen to get on with the job. Speeches have been converted
into work-streams. McKinsey strategists have been brought in to support
the analysis and implementation of Lee's new policy ideas. Brundtland's
cabinet model of executive directors has been scrapped. A newly appointed
team of assistant director-generals is in place. The mood is relaxed,
open, and optimistic. This is a team confident of its vision, on track in
its timelines, and clear about what it must do first.
The priority among priorities is HIV/AIDS. The phrase "3-by-5" peppers the
language of Lee loyalists. His goal is to get 3 million people in
developing countries on antiretroviral treatment by 2005. Lee has created
a new cluster in WHO for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. He and his
team see AIDS as a desperately neglected area in the agency's work. UNAIDS
is a successful advocacy body. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria is designed to be an effective financing instrument. Yet no
international organisation has so far stepped forward to assume
responsibility for controlling HIV at the country level. This is Lee's
signature issue.
The new administration also sees HIV/AIDS as a valuable lever to achieve
its second priority: strengthening health systems. Gathering wide support
to address HIV/AIDS is the agency's best means to secure political backing
for investment in countries. To win this commitment will require a degree
of detail in disease surveillance so far unknown to WHO. A thorough
overhaul of the controversial Evidence and Information for Policy cluster
aims to bring new expertise into the agency. Lee's team plans to set up an
operations room--a "war room", suggested one of his senior advisors--to
collect, analyse, and distribute information to countries for targeted
policy development. Reliable information is, according to this view, WHO's
greatest advocacy tool.
Lee's other priorities will not catch the imagination of those who want to
see WHO adopt a higher public profile in polarised debates about, for
example, access to essential medicines. There will be no thunder from
Geneva. But to mark this down as an early failure of nerve would be a
mistake. Lee's style will be quieter than Brundtland's. There will be no
high-profile commissions, no command-and-control culture. He has carefully
assembled a team of assistant director-generals and directors who will,
first and foremost, work well together. He is conscious that infighting
among executive directors marred the end of his predecessor's regime. The
litmus test for any new initiative will be whether it can make a
difference in countries. Resources will be decentralised. Regional offices
will be drawn closer into decision making. Ways will be found to make WHO
a kinder place to work.
It has become a peculiar expectation for new leaders of large
organisations to have achieved something significant after only 100 days.
Lee's early milestones will not be rushed. 6 months in, he will have a
strategy for "3-by-5"; the elements of a surveillance programme will be in
place; a re-engineered evidence cluster will be ready for business. There
are difficult problems that will inevitably create heat--and will need to
be managed delicately. Efforts to acquire health metrics from countries
will bring WHO into conflict with governments that prefer secrecy to
openness. A refocus on specific diseases may offend those who are
especially committed to equity. Dual responsibility within the UN system
for HIV/AIDS could create unnecessary rivalries between UNAIDS and WHO.
WHO is about to have not only a new director-general, but also, it seems,
a fresh way of working. The change in culture in the offices of transition
team members and the corridors of WHO's headquarters is palpable. The
handover from Brundtland to Lee has been efficient. There is, in sum, much
to hope for from WHO after July 21. It is the right moment to offer the
agency strong support.
--
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