WHO appoints directors for Africa, Europe

Dr Matshidiso Moeti has been re-appointed for a second term as World Health Organisation Regional Director for Africa while Dr Hans Kluge was appointed Regional Director for Europe respectively.

This is according to a statement from the global health governing body.

Moeti's role in her second term is to make health care significantly affordable for poor people. Her work would revolve around policy formulation designated to tackle tobacco use, vaccines for cervical cancer and malaria prevention as well as joint initiatives to procure medicines affordably.

Expressing her delight at the opportunity, she said, "I am greatly honoured to have been appointed to serve a second term as the WHO Regional Director for Africa and I would like to thank you for the trust you have shown.

“As Africa increasingly faces the double burden of diseases, the next five years in public health will be crucial in laying a strong foundation to reverse this burden,” she added.

On the other hand, Dr Hans Kluge will direct international health work across the 53 countries of the WHO European Region, serving a population of 900 million people.

His major vision is to create government policies that would include health for people-centred and financially-sustainable healthcare and public health services, including affordable medicines.

Before joining WHO, Dr Moeti worked as Team Leader of Africa and the Middle East Desk in Geneva (1997–1999) with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. She also worked with the United Nations Children's Fund as Regional Health Advisor for East and Southern Africa, and with Botswana’s Ministry of Health as a clinician and public health specialist.

Dr Moeti holds a degree in medicine (M.B., B.S) and a master’s degree in public health (MSc in Community Health for Developing Countries) from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, the University of London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, respectively. She was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Health & Allied Sciences, Ghana.

Over the past decade at WHO/Europe, Dr Kluge helped introduce community-based primary health care in Greece during the financial crisis, the Tallinn Charter implementation, and in 2018, pushing forward commitments adopted at the Global Conference on Primary Health Care in Astana, Kazakhstan.

For the past 25 years, Dr Kluge has been active in public health, beginning his career as a family doctor in Belgium and serving for Médecins Sans Frontières in Liberia and Somalia. His work involved large-scale tuberculosis programmes in prison systems in Siberia and several countries of the former Soviet Union. At the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, he headed tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria programmes in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Myanmar.