Why WHO Director General will visit Kiambu Level 5 Hospital next Wednesday.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus next week is expected to lead a high level delegation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to Kenya.

During this important visit, the Director General is scheduled to visit Kiambu Level 5 Hospital on Wednesday 10 January 2017.

According to a circular by Health secretary Cleopa Kilonzo Mailu to the Governor of Kiambu Ferdinand Waititu and copied to both his Health C.E.C. and Chief Officer, Dr. Tedros requested to visit the hospital in order to ‘gain a better understanding’ of the service delivery model in Kenya.

The letter further asks those concerned to make the necessary arrangements to host the dignitaries.

Dr. Tedros was elected as Director-General on 23^rd May 2017 by WHO Member States at the Seventieth World Health Assembly, to serve for a five-year term.

He is the first WHO DG to have been elected from multiple candidates by the World Health Assembly, and is the first person from the WHO African Region to serve as WHO's chief technical and administrative officer.

Immediately after taking office on 1 July 2017 Dr. Tedros outlined five key priorities for the Organization: universal health coverage; health emergencies; women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health; health impacts of climate and environmental change; and a transformed WHO.

Prior to his election as WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2012–2016. In this role he led efforts to negotiate the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, in which 193 countries committed to the financing necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr. Tedros served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Health from 2005–2012, where he led a comprehensive reform of the country’s health system. All roads lead to universal health coverage for Dr. Tedros, and he has demonstrated what it takes to expand access to health care with limited resources.

The transformation he led as Ethiopia’s Minister of Health improved access to health care for millions of people. Under his leadership Ethiopia invested in critical health infrastructure, expanded its health workforce, and developed innovative health financing mechanisms.