15 Kartik, Kathmandu.
Diplomatic battlelines have been drawn in a contest between Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter and psychologist Saima Wazed and Nepal’s top public health specialist in WHO, Shambhu Prasad Acharya, for the elections of the World Health Organisation’s regional director of the New Delhi-based Southeast Asia Regional Office (SEARO).
While Wazed is a school psychologist and has been adviser to WHO chief on mental health and autism, Acharya has been working with the WHO for more than three decades and he is currently Director, Country Strategy and Support, Office of the Director-General, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland, since 2013.
The Regional Committee of WHO South-East Asia Region will vote this week to nominate the next Regional Director in a closed meeting during its 76th session from October 30 to November 2 in New Delhi.
The WHO South-East Asia Region has 11 member countries — Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. WHO has country offices in all 11 member countries. One of the six WHO Regions, WHO South-East Asia is home to over a quarter of the world’s population.
Diplomatic campaigning has now peaked between Bangladesh and Nepal governments, which have proposed their candidates. Delhi has to now choose between Wazed and Acharya.
सूचना विभाग दर्ता नंः १८२३/०७६-७७