Hanan Balkhy, Saudi Arabia’s candidate for WHO Director General, is especially concerned about antibiotic resistance, the effects of climate change on health, and healthcare in conflict zones. She also warns about a “normalisation” of attacks on hospitals and healthcare workers in conflict regions.
As a longtime WHO insider, she is also well aware that the WHO needs to reform and do more with less money.
“The bottom line is that the funding is slimmer.” says Balkhy, currently regional director of WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, in an interview with Inside Geneva‘s Imogen Foulkes around her candidacy. A citizen of Saudi Arabia, Balkhy also trained as a medical doctor in the United States, where she also dual citizenship.
Doing the WHO’s top job, she says, is an extension of her lifelong ambition to work in the medical field and “serve the broader humanity.”
Listen to the full podcast:
The interview series with WHO DG candidates is being co-produced by the SwissInfo media platform with the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Health Centre, as part of a media collaboration on the upcoming WHO election also supported by Health Policy Watch.
See more about the candidates on Health Policy Watch’s special WHO election website.
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