Five people are competing to take over as director-general of the World Health Organization, with the contest unfolding amid an American pullback from the organization and falling international support for global health work.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the current director-general, and his successor will take office on Aug. 16, 2027. The nomination period closed Thursday, and five names are listed on the WHO’s website, including late entrant Maria Neira, director of the WHO’s environment, climate change, and migration division, who was nominated by Spain.
The field remains unsettled for now. Further names could still come forward across the coming weeks, and the WHO has said it will not put out its final list of candidates until after all the regional WHO bodies have held their autumn gatherings, which wrap up in early November.
Who Is Running
The five listed candidates bring different backgrounds to the race:
- Maria P. Neira — director of the WHO’s environment, climate change, and migration division, nominated by Spain.
- Hanan Mohammed Al-Kuwari — Qatar’s public health minister from 2016-2024 and managing director of Qatar’s largest public health provider, Hamad Medical Corporation, from 2007 to 2024.
- Hanan Balkhy — directs the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region since early 2024 and previously worked at WHO headquarters as assistant director-general for antimicrobial resistance.
- Hans Henri P. Kluge — directs the WHO’s European regional directorship since early 2020 and led the region through the Covid-19 pandemic and the emergence of mpox in Europe.
- Budi Gunadi Sadikin — Indonesia’s health minister since late 2020, and if elected would be the first director-general without a medical or advanced degree.
The distribution of the field does not cover the world equally. Suerie Moon, who directs the global health center at the Geneva Graduate Institute, pointed out that with two candidates coming from the Eastern Mediterranean region and two from Europe, it appears probable that votes within at least one region will be split.
“I doubt most regions will vote as unified blocks, in any case, and the idea of ‘taking turns’ across the regions is no longer carrying much weight,” she said.
The U.S. Withdrawal
Since the U.S. pulled out of the WHO, which served as its biggest backer, funding for global health has shrunk internationally. That decision was mostly linked to Trump’s view that the agency had handled the pandemic response poorly.
The United States was the biggest contributor to the agency, having committed assessed contributions of 2025, worth $130 million, that were never paid before departure. The Trump administration walked away from nearly $278 million in unpaid fees, even though a congressional resolution had specified that all outstanding monies owed must be settled first.
In the 2022-2023 budget period, the U.S. contributed nearly $1.3 billion in dues and voluntary contributions.
What the Experts Say
The director of Georgetown University’s WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights, Lawrence Gostin, labeled the election “the most consequential DG election in modern WHO history.”.
“Because the organization is more vulnerable, in a more perilous position, than it’s been at any time in the last 25 years that I can recall,” he said.
The director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ global health program, said he wasn’, Thomas Bollyky, was taken aback by the sheer number of candidates but had anticipated a field with more geographic diversity. He doesn’t believe there is a current frontrunner.
Gostin believes there is a groundswell of support for Budi.
“WHO really needs a technically excellent person, and it seems to me that, rather than the usual person that’s got mostly the health/public health/science chops, having a former banker and corporate executive is quite attractive,” Gostin said. “I think having a technocrat, particularly an economic and corporate technocrat, might be very appealing to countries, particularly since he’s from the global south and a very powerful mover on the equity front.”
The Race Ahead
Before the regional WHO divisions hold their fall meetings, no official list of candidates will be released. That release is scheduled for early November.
This election’s setting has changed because the United States pulled out. The World Health Organization no longer receives the money it once did from American sources, so it has less cash to fund global health programs.
| Stage | Timeline |
|---|---|
| Nomination period closes | Thursday |
| Fall meetings conclude | Early November |
| Official candidate list released | After fall meetings |
| New director-general takes office | Aug. 16, 2027 |
For years to come, the results will shape how health is governed around the world.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs individual freedom and small business, and is against treating the WHO director-general contest as a horse race between two machines that both gather power. The contest involves five candidates, none of whom represent every part of the world, and the field remains open for further names to join until early November.
The contest matters because the organization has lost its biggest backer, and its funding has fallen along with its standing. The choice of who leads it next will set the course for health governance worldwide for years to come.
What the paper wants is a process that respects individual merit over machine politics, and a leader who can restore the organization’s strength without depending on a single country’s favor.
Source material: “At least five candidates vie to become the next WHO leader, as questions over U.S. role loom,” STAT.
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