At least five candidates are in the running to become the next director-general of the World Health Organization, a job that will come with extraordinary challenges.
The withdrawal of the WHO’s largest funder — the United States — and an overall contraction of international spending on global health has raised crucial questions about how the Geneva-based agency will respond once a successor to Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus takes office. Among many significant issues awaiting this individual will be deciding whether or how to entice the U.S. to either return to the fold, or at least interact more frequently and collaboratively with the WHO.
