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Abu Obaidha Arin · 11:07 AM
I have resigned as Regional Director of the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia Region. I want to explain the circumstances that led to my resignation and raise questions about political pressure and the failure to uphold due process
By Saima Wazed I have resigned as Regional Director of the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia Region. I want to explain the circumstances that led to my resignation and raise questions about political pressure and the failure to uphold due process. Multilateral organisations like the World Health Organization are, by their nature, political institutions. Every senior leader who serves within one is therefore vulnerable to political currents beyond their control. I understood this when I accepted the honour of serving as WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia. What I did not expect was to see due process itself become a casualty of those political currents in an institution I have spent much of my professional life supporting. Let me be clear at the outset: I hold WHO in enormous regard. Long before I held any position within the organisation, I served as an external expert, working on autism and neurodevelopmental disorders, sitting on WHO’s Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health, and helping shape policies that the organisation champions today. I…
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