Setting an agenda for Jong-Wook Lee

In the mid-1990s the World Health Organization seemed doomed to either “flounder in a morass of petty corruption and ineffective bureacracy”1 or to die.2 Neither of these happened. Instead, Gro Harlem Brundtland, who took office as director general in July 1998, restored the organisation's reputation as a credible force in global health.3 Last week the World Health Assembly approved Jong-Wook Lee as Brundtland's successor. Unlike Brundtland, Lee is not being charged with saving the organisation but with harnessing its potential to transform the lives of the poorest. There are four things he must do to help achieve this.

Think global, act local

credit: WHO

Firstly, he must start to close the huge gap between what WHO is doing on the global stage and what is happening at country level. Where Brundtland focused her energies and much of WHO's resources on headquarters—a strategy that was useful for launching new, high profile public-private partnerships—Lee must think globally and act locally.

High profile public-private initiatives are being rolled out in countries with weak public health systems. The poorest countries struggle with epidemics, natural …