Saima Wazed and Dr. Shambhu Acharya seen together at a meet in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter, Saima Wazed, was on Wednesday nominated as the next Regional Director for the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia region.

She defeated Shambu Acharya, a public health veteran from Nepal, in a vote held here during the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region. 

Bangladesh, Bhutan, DPR (North) Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste — 10 of the 11 member countries — took part in the vote. Myanmar did not send a delegation to the meeting. 

The nomination will be submitted to the WHO Executive Board during its 154th session, which is scheduled to take place on January 22-27 in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO regional office said in an official communication.

The newly appointed Regional Director will take over from the present incumbent, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, on February 1.

Ms. Wazed, in a statement, said the WHO South-East Asia Region was home to over two billion people — more than a quarter of the people of the planet — and that the region represented a diversity with often differences existing within the boundaries of single member states themselves. She said that her priority areas of work would include universal health coverage (UHC), emergency response and pandemic preparedness, collaboration and partnerships (regional and multi-sectoral), and mental health.

“We will work to promote community-based mental healthcare services in member countries, encourage prevention and promotion in mental health while expanding efforts to include mental health in the public health agenda,” Ms. Wazed said.

Reacting to the result, Swarup Sarkar, former Director of WHO SEARO, said the election demonstrated the collective resolve of member states to move forward with the vision set out by Ms. Wazed.

“As a former WHO staff, I would look forward to a stronger, responsive, and responsible WHO working at the global, regional and country levels, on the principle of one WHO and more participation of civil society at all stages of WHO work,” he said.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed. File
| Photo Credit: Twitter/drSaimaWazed

The contest between Bangladesh and Nepal for the regional head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has become increasingly heated, with allegations of “nepotism” and “sexism” being hurled at the candidates, and the election to be held in Delhi less than two weeks away. 

In an interview to The Hindu, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister has demanded that Nepal, whose candidate Shambhu Acharya is a WHO veteran, withdraw its candidate for the post, in favour of Bangladesh’s candidate Saima Wazed, who is Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter, defending her against the charges of “nepotism”. Ms. Wazed has also alleged that the opposition to her candidature denotes a “vicious strain of sexism” against women competing for “positions of power”. 

“[Nepal’s candidate] had been working in the WHO for the last 30 years and was in a decision-making position. So why have [health indices] not improved in the whole of the South East Asian region, even though he himself is a person of South Asian origin?” Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen asked, adding that the Nepali candidate should “step down” from the election race.

Mr. Acharya refuted the allegations of inefficacy, saying that in fact “the world has made substantial progress in health”. “The responsibility in achieving health for all is a shared responsibility as mentioned in the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) review,” he added.

When asked about the Bangladesh government’s call to withdraw, Nepal’s Health Minister said that Mr. Acharya is the “most eligible” candidate, pitting his experience in public health against Ms. Wazed’s, who is a psychologist, an activist on autism, and a government advisor.

“Dr. Shambhu Acharya has obtained advanced public health degree and possesses profound experience in public health working in different agencies and at different levels…The Regional Director position requires skills in human resource management, institutional management etc. among others which Dr. Acharya has been doing for more than two decades,” Nepal’s Health Minister Mohan Bahadur Basnet said in a written response.

As The Hindu had reported last month, both countries had forwarded their candidatures for Director of the WHO’s South East Asian Regional Office (SEARO) earlier this year. The post will go to the candidate receiving the majority of votes after a secret ballot by 11 regional members — Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste.  After it became clear that there would be a contest during the upcoming SEARO meeting in Delhi from October 30-November2, an unusually high-profile campaign has followed with Ms. Wazed accompanying Ms. Hasina to a number of international conferences, including the BRICS summit in South Africa, the G-20 summit in Delhi, and the UNGA summit in New York, posting photographs with many world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

After a number of articles in public health journals, including The Lancet and Health Policy Watch, criticised her for using Ms. Hasina’s clout in the campaign, Ms. Wazed hit back in a piece entitled ‘Setting the Record Straight’ last week, where she accused the articles against her of reflecting “damaging biases, that perpetuate harmful stigmas and stereotypes”, adding details of her own experience in advocating for awareness on autism and mental health.

The Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment on India’s choice in the subcontinental tussle. However, officials have said that the Bangladesh candidate has “the edge” given close ties, and Mr. Modi’s promise of support during his visit to Dhaka in 2021 that was mentioned in the India-Bangladesh joint statement at the time. However, the joint statement issued subsequently, during Ms. Hasina’s visit to Delhi in 2022, does not mention the WHO contest. India’s Poonam Khetrapal has been the WHO SEARO Director since 2014, and will hand over the post to the nominated candidate chosen at the Delhi meeting this month, following a ratification of the nomination in January 2024.