By Adedapo Adesanya
The appointment of the next Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) will take place at the 75th World Health Assembly in May 2022 with the incumbent, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, set to return following his approval by member states.
The Director-General election process began when member states, through a circular letter sent by the WHO Secretariat in April 2021, were invited to submit proposals for candidates for the position.
The deadline for submission of proposals was September 23, 2021, and proposals from 28 WHO member states, from all WHO regions, were received by the deadline.
These were Austria, Bahrain, Barbados, Botswana, Cook Islands, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Rwanda, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Tonga, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The end of October signified when WHO was scheduled to publish information on candidates, including the curricula vitae and other particulars of their qualifications and experience as received from member states, is to follow the closure of the last WHO Regional Committee meeting of the year.
WHO announced that a single candidate was proposed by member states by the deadline and that was Mr Ghebreyesus, who is the incumbent DG.
During the 150th session of the Executive Board in January 2022, the Board will conduct an initial screening to ensure that the candidate meets the criteria decided by the Health Assembly, interview him and then decide on the nomination by secret ballot. The nomination will be submitted to WHA75.
The appointment will take place at WHA75 in May 2022, also by secret ballot. The term of office of the next WHO chief will start on August 16, 2022.
A Director-General can be re-appointed once, therefore, Dr Ghebreyesus, the incumbent, is eligible to be proposed for the second term of five years till 2027.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Aduragbemi Omiyale