New Delhi: The controversy over the election of the pinnacle of World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Southeast Asia Regional Office (SEARO) refused to die down as 60 public well being consultants have written to the UN company demanding extra transparency within the course of, The Telegraph reported.

Saima Wazed, daughter of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is likely one of the contenders for the put up. The different one is Shambhu Prasad Acharya, a public well being specialist from Nepal.

India is one of the 11 member states of the SEARO, and, due to this fact, will vote within the polls. Quoting a Press Information Bureau assertion, The Telegraph has reported that India has already indicated its assist for the Bangladesh prime minister’s daughter – a transfer that consultants have termed as an example of giving geopolitics better significance over public well being.

Wazed was prominently seen within the lately held G20 Summit in New Delhi alongside together with her mom. Bangladesh has already thanked India for its assist.

Three of the signatories advised the newspaper that Hasina’s daughter doesn’t have “technical, administrative or public health experience” to go the workplace. Bangladesh had nominated her as a result of she was the prime minister’s daughter, they claimed. This is likely one of the uncommon cases that the daughter of a serving prime minister is contesting to turn out to be head of the regional workplace of the WHO.

The Telegraph’s try and get a response for her earlier than publication of the report didn’t yield something.

Nepal’s candidate, Acharya, is a public well being specialist with a PhD in public well being, well being coverage and financing from the University of North Carolina within the US. He has served the WHO for 3 a long time in numerous capacities.

Wazed has an MSc diploma in medical psychology from Barry University (US). She has been a member of the WHO’s skilled advisory panel on psychological well being for over 9 years, and an adviser to the WHO’s director-general on psychological well being and autism for 4 years, in keeping with her CV, submitted as a part of the appliance for the put up.

“If public health is the sole criterion on which countries vote, Acharya will absolutely win, but when the other candidate is the daughter of a prime minister, it is not an equal battle,” the newspaper quoted a signatory as saying.

However, an skilled additionally expressed shock on the “coordinated campaign” towards Wazed.

“Surprised to see a well-coordinated negative campaign going on against Bangladesh(‘s) candidate for WHO SEAR RD …,” Monir Islam, former WHO consultant in Thailand and Namibia and former director of well being programs improvement on the WHO, Geneva, wrote on X (previously Twitter) on Friday.

The Southeast Asia Region of the WHO has many complicated public well being issues to deal with. The international locations on this area have the best burden of a number of the illnesses that are main challenges for the WHO. And, due to this fact, an skilled in public well being, whosoever turns into head of this regional workplace of the WHO, may have lots to cope with.