Rapid Responses to:

EDITORIALS: Gavin Yamey and Kamran Abbasi Electing WHO's next leader BMJ 2002; 325: 1251-1252 [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

Merit more important than regional affiliation

Idris Mohammed, Abuja, Nigeria   (30 November 2002)

Merit more important than regional affiliation 30 November 2002
Idris Mohammed, Professor of Medicine & Chairman National Programme on Immunization University of Maiduguri & National Programme on Immunization, Ahmadu Bello Way, Garki 11,, Abuja, Nigeria Send response to journal: Re: Merit more important than regional affiliation	As we move nearer to the dateline for electing a new Director-General for the World Health Organization (WHO), the write-up by Yamey and Abbasi should be taken seriously by all who have the best interests of the health of mankind. Outgoing Director-General (G-D), Gro Harlem Bundtland, set out to reform the administration and policy thrust of the WHO, with some discernable success, and it is a pity she is not intersted in a second term which would have seen through some of the positive ideas and reforms she set out to introduce. I hope that the Executive Board will find a successor who would move the reform agenda forward. In this regard, the Board should give merit the highest priority in recommending the new D-G. As an African, I naturally prefer that the Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi succeeds Bundtland, because I believe that much as previous Directors-General had tried, they failed to meet the full aspirations of the resource-poor developing countries. However Mocumbi must merit the appointment, because in the final analysis an incompetent D-G could damage African aspirations rather than promote them. I fully agree with Yamey and Abbasi that prospective applicants for this highly coveted post should publish their manifestos, and be elected in a transparent manner. The new D-G of WHO should accept the need to change direction without reluctance, in keeping with the rapid changes taking place by virtue of the technological revolution taking place now. A case in point is the need to revise the policy for control of epidemic meningococcal meningitis, which is obsolete in the face of compelling evidence of the availability of safe, effective vaccines of improved immunogenicity. Competing interests:   None declared