so the world seems to have exploded with
excitement at the fact that dr. Ted Raj
is the new director-general at the World
Health Organization who is II why does
this matter stay tuned and find out
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part of this community so the race to
replace Margaret Chan is the
director-general of the World Health
Organization is over and we have a
winner dr. Ted Russ and let me just say
this never before has there been such a
closely watched election of the DG at
the w-h-o and for good reason we're
living in an era of unprecedented
interconnectivity in this world and this
brings with it firstly real
opportunities for us to capitalize on
our collective strengths and address
real global health problems with the
right leadership the World Health
Organization is in a position to really
tackle some of the big global health
challenges things like climate change of
health tobacco the sustainable
development goals equitable access to
health services with strong leadership
with the right leadership the WTO is
really in a position to save the lives
of tens of millions of people and
secondly this interconnected world that
we live in also brings with it certain
threats threats to global health
security so for example a poorly managed
avian influenza pandemic like something
that we saw in 1970 in the Spanish flu
that could kill in this day and age
literally hundreds of millions of people
and I'm not being melodramatic I mean
literally hundreds of millions of people
so whi needs to make sure that Member
States are ready for pandemics these
pandemics will come and when they do the
WHI also needs to be able cold made an
effective global response at that point
in time and basically that's going to
come down to strong and effective
leadership
so yesterday's election of the new DG at
the whu-oh is going to affect all of us
in some shape or form in the next couple
of years so let's take a closer look at
dr. Ted rice but before we do I just
want to give a big thank you to the
University of Notre Dame for sponsoring
this video the University of Notre Dame
running Masters of Science in global
health
that is absolutely world-class if you're
interested in working in the global
health space then I highly recommend
that you have a look at their program
it's going to be a link in the
description
below you can click on that and find out
more right let's take a look at dr. Ted
Russ I'm not going to go through his
entire CV but I am going to look at one
or two aspects of his past and I think
highlight his ability to lead the w-h-o
and take it to the next level in the
future and I'm also going to tell you
about his vision for the World Health
Organization since 2012 dr. Ted Ross has
been the Minister of Foreign Affairs in
Ethiopia and in this role he has really
demonstrated a talent for consensus
building on the global stage so for
example as the chair of the main
committee at the 2015 international
conference on Finance for development
dr. Ted Ross managed to get agreement
from 193 UN member states on plans to
achieve and finance the sustainable
development goals and let me just say
this I used to work with in the World
Health Organization and in the UN system
and I am acutely aware of how difficult
this sort of consensus building can be
and this is exactly what the world is
needing right now we can't tackle the
big global health problems as individual
nation states consensus cooperation
multilateralism these are the only ways
forward and here we have a man with a
proven track record to make it happen so
what did dr. Ted rush do before that
well hold on to your hats because this
guy just continues to impress now in
global health as you know we're always
talking about transforming and improving
health systems but they aren't that many
examples where we can point to real and
dramatic and demonstrable changes that
have been achieved well ladies and
gentlemen let me take you back to 2005
entering on stage we have Minister of
Health in Ethiopia dr. Ted rice to say
that dr. Ted Raj transformed the health
system in Ethiopia between 2005 and 2012
is somewhat of an understatement during
that time frame he improved health
infrastructure there were three and a
half thousand new health centers both
16,000 new health posts were made we saw
child mortality down by two-thirds HIV
infections down by 90% malaria mortality
down by 75%
TB mortality down by 64% he also
strengthened the health workforce he
oversaw the training and deployment of
38,000 health extension workers this
created a community driven system with
women at its core and it has been
replicated in more than a dozen
three across Africa during his tenure
the country's training capacity River
from three medical schools training 120
doctors clear just 33 schools training
through thousands of the years he also
successfully tackled issues like stop
after the dead for medicine with
information systems so in a
harmonization and mainly in Arabic look
anybody that's been working in the
global health space knows that to
accomplish any one of these things is
really impressive but altogether they
really elevate dr. Ted rice to superhero
status so to me this looks like a man
who knows how to build consensus and
those how to get things done just the
kind of man we need at the top of the WH
er but wait there's more dr. Ted rice
has also been actively involved in many
leadership and governance roles in the
global health space for example he's
been the chair of the Global Fund to
fight AIDS TB and malaria
he's been the chair of the roll back
malaria partnership just to name two and
in these roles again he's managed to
build consensus and drive change so I'm
excited about dr. Ted Rose the world is
excited about dr. Ted Russ and for good
reason
I wanted to take a moment and take a
look at his vision for the w-h-o going
forward and believe me you're going to
love this this is his vision statement
that he put forward when he was a
candidate for the BG position of the WH
er I envision a world where everybody
can lead a healthy and productive life
regardless of who they are and where
they live
achieving this will require a stronger
and reformed w-h-o that belongs to all
of us equally and that is efficiently
managed adequately resourced and results
driven with a strong focus on
transparency accountability and value
for money a director general I will put
people first based health at the center
of the global agenda and engage concrete
and strengthen partnerships to deliver
results so to dr. Ted Russ I don't know
if you're going to watch this video but
if you do I'd like to say this on behalf
of the millions of people that are
excited like myself about you taking
this leadership position at the w-h-o
we'd like to say firstly thank you for
taking on the job taking ly good luck
and we're behind you all the way now
stay and watch another video
not you dr. Ted Ross you need to carry
on making the world a better place
everybody else stay and watch another
video and learn more about global health
and remember to subscribe to this
channel if you haven't already what do
you think about the new DG at the WH o
make a comment in the comment section
below I'd love to hear your thoughts and
again
a big thank you to the University of
Notre Dame for supporting this video
until next time take care