New WHO chief promises greater commitment to HIV/AIDS
Authors: Helen Frankish
Journal: The Lancet (2003)

Lee names HIV/AIDS as his top priority and unveils the team that will help carry WHO'S work forward With a pledge to give greater priority to HIV/AIDS and achieving results in poor countries, South Korea's Jong-wook Lee took office as the new Director-General of WHO on July 21. “We must scale up an integrated global HIV/AIDS strategy linking prevention, care, and treatment, prioritising poor and underserved areas”, said Lee in his inaugural address to about 500 WHO staff at the organisation's Geneva headquarters. “I am, therefore, constituting an HIV/AIDS leadership team to ensure that WHO, working with local, national, and international partners, will be at the forefront of this effort.” To promote synergy in combating infectious diseases, the WHO department in charge of tackling HIV/AIDS will be brought into one group together with tuberculosis and malaria. Taken together, the three diseases are responsible for about 25% of all deaths worldwide each year. Lee named American Jack Chow, former Special Representative for HIV/AIDS to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, as the new head of the HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria cluster. In the long term, Lee said, WHO's goal would be to provide antiretroviral drugs to 3 million people in developing countries by the end of 2005—the so-called “three-by-five” target. “By Dec 1 this year, World AIDS Day, WHO's HIV/AIDS department, working with partners, will produce a global plan for reaching the three-by-five target”, Lee said. “Together with partners such as UNAIDS, WHO will use all available tools of advocacy to mobilise the political will and the additional resources needed to put this plan into action.” “We must scale up an integrated global HIV/AIDS strategy linking prevention, care, and treatment” The three-by-five target will guide much of WHO's work on HIV/AIDS, he said, but patterns of resistance to antiretroviral drugs would also be closely monitored through a global network in collaboration with WHO's partners. Lee, a communicable diseases expert and former head of WHO's Stop TB programme, also vowed to improve notification and monitoring systems to help tackle contagious diseases such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). “The SARS crisis illustrated WHO's essential role in coordinating the international response to infectious disease outbreaks”, he said. But he conceded that the SARS epidemic also revealed weaknesses in global disease surveillance. “We will work with our partners in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, and with bilateral and multilateral donors, to reinforce national and regional surveillance systems.” On his first day in office, the new Director-General also reinforced WHO's commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, targets that world leaders agreed on at the Millennium Summit 3 years ago. “We see the Millennium Goals as milestones on the road to health for all”, he asserted. In his address, Lee admitted that in recent years, WHO's resources have become increasingly concentrated in Geneva, and that there has been “a gradual drift” towards programmes driven by headquarters' priorities, rather than towards programmes based on countries' individual needs. To ensure that WHO's resources are aimed at producing results where they are needed most, Lee pledged to increase funds at country level over the coming months and years, adding that the organisation would ensure that country offices have the resources and authority they need to work more effectively in responding to national and local health needs. Lee asked the 11 newly appointed Assistant Directors-General (see panel, p 298) to analyse the work of their respective areas and to propose specific steps for moving resources from headquarters to the various regions.PanelLee's newly appointed team of Assistant Directors-GeneralDenis Aitken (UK), formerly Chef de Cabinet, will become Director of the Director-General's Office.Anarfi Asamoa-Baah (Ghana), currently Executive Director for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals, will lead the Communicable Diseases cluster.Kazem Behbehani (Kuwait), Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Liaison Office, will head the External Relations and Governing Bodies cluster.Jack Chow (USA), Special Representative of the US Secretary of State for HIV/AIDS, will take charge of the HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria cluster.Tim Evans (Canada), Director of Health Equity at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, will lead the Evidence and Information for Policy cluster.Catherine Le Gales-Camus (France), most recently scientific adviser to France's Director-General of Health will take leadership of the Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health cluster.Kerstin Leitner (Germany), UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China, will be responsible for the Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments cluster.Vladimir Lepakhin (Russia), most recently the Head of the Department of General and Clinical Pharmacology at the Russian University of People's Friendship, will take responsibility for the Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals cluster.Liu Peilong (China), Director-General of the Department of International Cooperation at the Chinese Ministry of Health, will become Adviser to the Director-GeneralAnders Nordstrom (Sweden), Head of the Health Division at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, will take control of the General Management clusterJoy Phumaphi (Botswana), Minister of Health in Botswana and HIV/AIDS commissioner appointed by the UN Secretary-General, will lead the Family and Community Health cluster. Denis Aitken (UK), formerly Chef de Cabinet, will become Director of the Director-General's Office. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah (Ghana), currently Executive Director for Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals, will lead the Communicable Diseases cluster. Kazem Behbehani (Kuwait), Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Liaison Office, will head the External Relations and Governing Bodies cluster. Jack Chow (USA), Special Representative of the US Secretary of State for HIV/AIDS, will take charge of the HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria cluster. Tim Evans (Canada), Director of Health Equity at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York, will lead the Evidence and Information for Policy cluster. Catherine Le Gales-Camus (France), most recently scientific adviser to France's Director-General of Health will take leadership of the Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health cluster. Kerstin Leitner (Germany), UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in China, will be responsible for the Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments cluster. Vladimir Lepakhin (Russia), most recently the Head of the Department of General and Clinical Pharmacology at the Russian University of People's Friendship, will take responsibility for the Health Technology and Pharmaceuticals cluster. Liu Peilong (China), Director-General of the Department of International Cooperation at the Chinese Ministry of Health, will become Adviser to the Director-General Anders Nordstrom (Sweden), Head of the Health Division at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, will take control of the General Management cluster Joy Phumaphi (Botswana), Minister of Health in Botswana and HIV/AIDS commissioner appointed by the UN Secretary-General, will lead the Family and Community Health cluster. “I will begin by deploying additional resources to priority country offices for building up capacity in HIV/AIDS control and health systems”, he said. The necessary resources would become available by 2004 to support rapid scaling-up of HIV technical cooperation and other priorities. Rights were not granted to include this image in electronic media. Please refer to the printed journal. Lee also pledged to tackle the shortage of skilled health-care staff worldwide, which will slow progress towards goals such as the three-by-five target and has hindered the Millennium Development Goals. “Our cooperation with other countries on this issue must intensify. Together, we must build the health workforce using innovative methods of training, development, and supervision of allied and community health workers. Community mobilisation is a key to success”, he said. Lee also outlined ways in which WHO could directly contribute to strengthening human resources within the health sector. In early 2004, he announced, WHO would launch the Health Leadership Programme, an initiative to recruit promising young health workers from around the world, and provide them with the opportunity to work within WHO—at country level, in regional offices, and at WHO's headquarters in Geneva. “Mentored by senior WHO staff, these young professionals will form part of the next generation of international health leaders”, he said. Notably, Lee also marked his takeover from the outgoing Director-General, Gro Harlem Brundtland, by replacing many of her most senior staff with a new team of Assistant Directors-General (see panel). David Heymann, Executive Director of Communicable Diseases, who led the WHO's efforts earlier this year to control the SARS outbreak, will now take charge of the drive to eradicate polio worldwide. Ghanaian Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, a WHO official who has been working for the agency since 1998, will take over from Heymann as Assistant Director-General of Communicable Diseases. Rights were not granted to include this image in electronic media. Please refer to the printed journal. And South African Derek Yach, who spearheaded WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control —adopted in May by the World Health Assembly after a 4-year negotiation period—will be replaced by Catherine Le Gales-Camus, a former scientific adviser to the Director-General of Health in France, as head of non-communicable diseases. Yach, meanwhile, has been appointed to design a plan to strengthen WHO's response to non-communicable diseases. David Nabarro, from the UK, will be replaced by Germany's Kerstin Leitner, UNDP's Resident Representative in China, as head of the Sustainable Development and Healthy Environments cluster. Nabarro will now lead WHO's Health Action in Crises programme. And Botswana's Minister of Health, Joy Phumaphi, will take over from Tomris Turmen, from Turkey, as Assistant Director-General for Family and Community Health, while Turmen will now lead a team charged with developing policy recommendations regarding the health implications of intellectual property rights structures. Concluding his address, Lee called for the continued commitment of WHO's staff, the Member States, and its national and international partners in order to meet WHO's goals in the years ahead. “WHO's founding vision, its achievements, its partners and, above all, its people create a solid foundation. Guided by our principles of loyalty, transparency, and commitment to excellence, we will move forward towards the goal of health for all. Together, learning from the past, we can change the future of global health.”