Presented by Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI)
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced Tuesday the names of his senior management team members who will leave the organization at the end of the month in an email sent to staff and seen by Jenny. This puts an end to speculation and rumors that have been swirling in Geneva for months.
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• Several people working in global health and WHO staffers have long known about the leadership changes. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan confirmed her departure last week, and Assistant Director-General on Drug Access, Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals Dr. Mariângela Simão has reportedly told several people that she’s leaving WHO ahead of the announcement.
• But some of the names came as a surprise, such as Dr. Jaouad Mahjour. He’s the one overseeing the pandemic treaty negotiations and the process to reform the International Health Regulations for WHO. “It will be interesting to see whom Dr. Tedros appoints to take over from Dr. Mahjour — at this critical juncture,” says Thiru Balasubramaniam, Geneva representative of Knowledge Ecology International.
• Some, meanwhile, expressed hope that the work started by Dr. Princess Nothemba Simelela in addressing racism at the World Health Organization will continue. “[S]he was leading a transformational agenda on eliminating racism in the WHO with training sessions for WHO staff, and would really like to see this work continue,” Fifa Rahman, a civil society representative with ACT-A, tells Jenny. Rahman is also hoping incoming senior officials will have the same “sense of pragmatism and passion for equitable access to medical technologies,” as Swaminathan and Simão exemplified in their work at WHO.
• The biggest question is: Who will be replacing these departing senior officials? To date, only former French Ambassador for Global Health Stephanie Seydoux has announced joining the organization as its new envoy for multilateral affairs, replacing Agnès Buzyn.
• Some also wonder if Tedros will make any changes to the current management structure. In 2019, he created new positions, such as the assistant director-general for data, analytics, and delivery position currently held by Dr. Samira Asma.
Exclusive: Here's everyone who is leaving WHO leadership
From the archives: New WHO structure revealed
✉️ What do you think of the changes, and who do you think will fill the soon-to-be-vacant positions? Email Jenny at jennylei.ravelo@devex.com.
FFF aka former Future Fund
It’s all over the news. The billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried aka SBF has filed for bankruptcy, taking FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he owns, down with him — and possibly billions of dollars that its customers may never see again.
But here’s what you may not know: He directed millions of dollars to pandemic preparedness initiatives, my colleague Catherine Cheney reports. For example, the Future Fund, one of the company’s philanthropic arms, gave Stanford University’s Center for Innovation in Global Health $1.5 million for seed grants to support innovations to prevent the next pandemic. But with the Future Fund no longer able to honor those commitments, it’s unclear what will happen to them.
Some in the field have argued his investments in pandemic preparedness might not be so helpful. Dr. Angela Rasmussen charged in a Twitter thread that some of the grants funded by SBF and his brother Gabe Bankman-Fried went to dubious companies that implied virologists “with a penchant for evildoing” could start future pandemics.
ICYMI: What will FTX's collapse mean for global health and development?
More on billionaire philanthropy: Devex Pro members can read our in-depth profile of the Bezos Earth Fund and how it works. Not a Pro member yet? Start your 15-day free trial of Pro today to read the piece.
One big number
7.7 million
—That’s the number of deaths in 2019 associated with 33 different bacterial infections, making them the second leading cause of death worldwide after ischemic heart disease, according to a new study published in The Lancet. The pathogens include Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which WHO has listed as one of the top priority pathogens in critical need of new antibiotics.
Hub step
In 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a €1 billion ($1 billion) “Team Europe” initiative to build local vaccine manufacturing in Africa. According to a news release at that time, the commission was already engaged in “promising projects” in several countries, including Egypt.
This week, my colleague Vince Chadwick has an update on those plans.
“In Egypt, the EU is discussing the establishment of a hub for vaccine production,” according to a European Commission summary report seen by Devex. The total amount of the project is still to be determined, but the European Investment Bank “may contribute” up to €300 million, according to the document.
Speaking of vaccines, according to the same document, by October 2022, COVAX and EU countries had only been able to deliver 206.5 million of the 450 million COVID-19 vaccine doses the EU committed to providing African countries.
The reason? "Overall vaccines delivery slowed down at the request of African partners … due to limited absorption capacity of the vaccination campaign roll-out,” the document states.
Border of magnitude
“Perhaps it's time for a total boycott. We stay away and even refuse to participate virtually.”
— Dr. Samuel Oti, commissioner, Chatham House Commission for Universal HealthVisa approvals have long been a problem for those coming from low- and middle-income countries to attend major international gatherings. But the issue exploded this year in the global health space, with many people from the global south unable to attend the AIDS 2022 conference in Montreal as well as the World Health Summit in Berlin.
The incidents have given rise to questions about whether holding development conferences in the global north is keeping the very people at the heart of the discussion from attending, with some advocating a boycott of even virtual events. But others disagree and think it would only put them and their causes at a disadvantage.
Read: How visa inequity is keeping global south experts locked out
Opinion: We couldn’t attend a health awards gala. Here is our message.
What we’re reading
The Médecins Sans Frontières condemns the killings of sex workers who are part of its community program in Mozambique. [African News Agency]
WHO reportedly plans to rename monkeypox MPOX. [Politico]
Nearly 40 million children globally didn’t complete their measles vaccination in 2021, according to WHO and the U.S. CDC. [Reuters]
About the authors
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
Amruta Byatnalamrutabyatnal
Amruta Byatnal is a Senior Editor at Devex where she edits coverage on global development, humanitarian crises and international aid. She writes Devex CheckUp, a weekly newsletter on the latest developments in global health. Previously, she worked for News Deeply in the United States, and The Hindu in India. She is a graduate of Cornell University where she studied international development. She is currently based in New Delhi.
