BMJ Opinion: Charles Clift: Tedros is refreshingly honest about the deficiencies in WHO governance and financing
Charles Clift, senior consulting fellow at the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House, discusses comments made by WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus about the WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work (GPW) and the WHO’s governance and financing at a November 2017 meeting of the WHO’s executive board. Clift writes, “This was a remarkably candid performance. The themes were not entirely new, although few have been so explicit about the deficiencies in WHO governance. But Dr. Tedros’ willingness to lay it on the line for member states is refreshing. His predecessors have generally been extremely cautious in biting the hands that feed them. For that very reason the strategy is a high risk one. If member states fail to respond in any substantial way, then this leaves Dr. Tedros in charge of an organization he considers is not fit for purpose. Yet his boldness can only be admired” (1/16).