Regional directors
Different views of the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Dr Mohamed Janabi, WHO Regional Director for Africa
Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi assumed office as WHO Regional Director for Africa on 30 June 2025, bringing to the role over three decades of distinguished leadership in clinical medicine, health policy, public health and health systems development across the continent, and beyond.
A prominent cardiologist, health strategist and global health diplomat, Dr Janabi has dedicated his career to strengthening health systems, advancing equitable care, and championing innovation and collaboration to improve health in Africa.
Dr Janabi’s vision is for a healthier, resilient and prosperous Africa, in which everyone has access to quality health care through equitable, innovative and sustainable systems. His priorities include advancing universal health coverage; reducing maternal and child mortality; tackling communicable and noncommunicable diseases; promoting climate-resilient health systems; and strengthening health security and emergency preparedness. He is also a strong proponent of domestic health financing, local research and innovation, and regional and global partnerships to address Africa’s shared health challenges.
Prior to his appointment, Dr Janabi served as Senior Health Advisor to the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, and Executive Director of Muhimbili National Hospital, the country’s largest referral facility. He previously led the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute, which he founded and transformed into a leading regional centre of excellence in cardiovascular care.
Dr Jarbas Barbosa, WHO Regional Director for the Americas
Dr Jarbas Barbosa, a national of Brazil, was elected Director of the Pan American Health Organization by Member States during the 30th Pan American Sanitary Conference on 28 September 2022. Dr Barbosa began his five-year term on 1 February 2023.
From July 2017 until his appointment as Director, he served as PAHO Assistant Director, leading five technical departments and PAHO’s Revolving Fund – a special programme to increase equitable access to vaccines in the Region. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Barbosa led the Organization’s efforts to support Member States in reducing the impact of the emergency on priority public health programs. He also led the PAHO Task Force for COVID-19 Vaccination in the Americas and launched a platform to expand production of mRNA vaccines in Latin America and the Caribbean to reduce the Region’s dependency on imports during future health emergencies.
His vision for the future of PAHO is to make it the leading Organization in supporting the countries of the Americas with the most innovative and efficient strategies to recover better than they were before, overcome inequalities, and build resilient health systems to improve the response to emergencies and disasters and to achieve universal health care.
Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean
Dr Hanan Balkhy was appointed WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean by the WHO Executive Board in January 2024. She took office on 1 February 2024.
Dr Balkhy has
set 5 priorities for her tenure as Regional Director: make health care more
accessible to all, especially hard-to-reach populations; expand country
capacities to tackle emergency health demands of the climate crisis, pandemics,
conflicts and other disasters; strengthen public health for disease prevention
and health promotion; expand partnerships for financing, and to share knowledge
and skills; and strengthen WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean
and country office capacities to boost cooperation and better influence global
health.
Dr Balkhy
was previously Assistant Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance at WHO
headquarters. Prior to this, she was Executive Director for Infection
Prevention and Control, Ministry of National Guard, Saudi Arabia. She led the Gulf
Cooperation Council Centre for Infection Control and the WHO Collaborating
Centre for Infection Prevention and Control and Antimicrobial Resistance, Saudi
Arabia.
A graduate of King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, Dr Balkhy completed her paediatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, United States of America. She later completed a paediatric infectious diseases fellowship with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Case Western Reserve University, USA.
Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe
Dr Hans Kluge is the WHO Regional Director for Europe. His term began on 1 February 2020, following his nomination by the WHO Regional Committee for Europe and appointment by the WHO Executive Board.
Throughout his career, beginning as a family doctor in Belgium, along a journey to Somalia, Liberia, the prisons in Siberia, former Soviet Union countries, Myanmar and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and most recently leading the Division of Health Systems and Public Health at WHO/Europe for a decade, Dr Kluge has always been committed to achieving better health for all with a focus on the vulnerable.
As Regional Director, Dr Kluge’s vision for the WHO European Region is “United action for better health”, working in partnership to achieve universal health coverage, address health emergencies and promote healthier populations.
Dr Kluge is from Belgium. He is married and has two daughters.
Ms Saima Wazed, WHO Regional Director for South-East Asia
Ms Saima Wazed took office as WHO Regional Director for the South-East Asia Region on 1 February 2024 for a five-year term. In this role, Ms Wazed will direct international health work in 11 countries with a population of over 2 billion people.
Prior to taking up this role, Ms Wazed served as advisor to the WHO Director-General on mental health and autism, and was a member of WHO’s Expert Advisory Panel on Mental Health. She was Chief Advisor for the National Mental Health Strategic Plan for the Government of Bangladesh, Chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, and Focal Person for disability for the Ministry of Disaster Management & Relief in Bangladesh. She was Commissioner of Chatham House’s Commission for Universal Health, Associate Fellow in the Global Health Programme at Chatham House, Thematic Ambassador for ‘Vulnerability’ of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, and Chairperson of the Shuchona Foundation in Bangladesh.
Ms Wazed, a licensed School Psychologist, nationally certified in the USA, holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in clinical psychology, and a Specialist degree in school psychology from Barry University in Florida, USA.
Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific
Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala took office as WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific on 1 February 2024 for a five-year term.
Dr Piukala brings to the role nearly 30 years of experience as a politician, public health leader and surgeon. He is a champion of multisectoral collaboration to tackle noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and the threat to health posed by climate change, leading initiatives for universal health coverage, infectious diseases, youth health, tobacco control, safe surgery, and disaster response.
Formerly a Member of Parliament and Minister of Health of Tonga, Dr Piukala led the country’s responses to the 2022 volcanic eruption, tsunami, and COVID-19 pandemic, achieving high vaccination coverage and a low fatality rate for the latter. He served as Vice-Chair of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific from October 2022 to October 2023, and chaired the Pacific Health Ministers meeting hosted by Tonga in September 2023. From 2019 to 2022 he served as a member of the WHO Executive Board, and he was a Commissioner for WHO’s Independent High-Level Commission on NCDs from 2018 to 2020.
Previously, Dr Piukala was Medical Superintendent of the main referral hospital in Tonga, and worked as a Senior Medical Officer and General Surgeon in Tonga and other Pacific islands including Fiji, Nauru, Niue and Tuvalu.
Dr Piukala holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, a Postgraduate Diploma in Surgery and a Master of Medicine in Surgery from the Fiji School of Medicine/University of the South Pacific.