Saima Wazed has won the election of the World Health Organization’s regional director for Southeast Asia which is composed of eleven countries.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea DPRK, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste took part in the voting in New Delhi on Wednesday, the third day of the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia. Myanmar, the other member, did not attend the meeting.
Saima had secured eight votes, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam said. The other candidate, Dr Shambhu Prasad Acharya, nominated by Nepal, received two votes.
Saima Wazed is the daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and is globally famed for her role as a mental health expert—particularly autism. She is an advisor to the WHO’s director-general for mental health.
Her name will now be submitted for appointment by the 154th session of the WHO Executive Board, which will take place on January 22–27, 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland.
After that she will take office on February 1 for a five-year term and be eligible for reappointment once.
With that, Saima Wazed will be the first Bangladeshi to hold the post created in 1948 as part of WHO's regional divisions.
Who is Saima Wazed?
Saima Wazed has drawn the attention of the people in Bangladesh and the world not just as the daughter of the prime minister and granddaughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
She spearheaded the campaign for autism awareness in Bangladesh at a time when parents would hide their children with this neurodevelopmental disorder due to the social stigma attached to the developmental disability.
She is a licensed school psychologist in the US and a faculty member of the Adrian Dominican School of Education (ADSOE) at Barry University, US.
She led a South Asia regional meeting in Dhaka on autism in July 2011, bringing together regional and global experts and leaders, including then-president of Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi, former Sri Lankan first lady Shiranthi Rajapaksa and Ilham Hussain, the wife of then-vice president of Maldives Mohammed Waheed Hassan.
After that Bangladesh’s National Advisory Committee on Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Global Autism Public Health Initiative were established under her chairmanship.
"It is because of her that we could make a place for our children in society. It is hard to explain how grateful we are to her," Sajida Rahman Danny, founder-president of Parents Forum for Differently Able, told Dhaka Tribune in September when Saima Wazed announced her candidature.
It was because of Saima Wazed that the WHO adopted several resolutions for the welfare of children with autism.
The WHO SEARO in 2014 recognized her contribution with the WHO Excellence Award for Public Health, saying she had put autism on the WHO map.
In the citation note, the WHO said she had played a "path-breaking" role in addressing autism at the national, regional and global levels to ensure there was a national policy and commitment for autistic children.
She was also made an advisor to the director general of the WHO on mental health and autism.
"I come from a well-known political family that most are familiar with and incorrectly assume that I have always lived a life of privilege. Despite being born in Bangladesh as the granddaughter of the Father of the Nation, my earliest memories were that of growing up in India as a refugee," she said on her personal website.
Bangabandhu was assassinated on August 15, 1975 along with most of his family members. Sheikh Hasina survived the attack as she was abroad at the time. But she could not come home until 1981.
"Trauma, secrecy and heightened concerns with security while always being aware I was not like everyone else were second nature to me," Saima said.
Vision for region
While announcing her candidacy, Saima Wazed set three visions. Firstly, strengthening the ability of the member states and the WHO to address health gaps in the context of current realities and foreseen and unforeseen challenges.
The second is to empower marginalized and vulnerable groups to ensure that they are not further disenfranchised.
The third is to enable countries in the WHO Southeast Asia region to implement equitable health by improving or creating effective and innovative local solutions.
“Our diverse regional reality underpins my belief that we must move away from one-size-fits-all policies, at both national and sub-national levels. I will champion an approach that focuses on local solutions for local realities. A ground-up approach creates effective and durable solutions when it draws on the expertise of member states’ understanding of their own communities,” she said in her election manifesto.
Working with 194 member states across six regions, the WHO is the United Nations specialized agency responsible for directing and coordinating international health work. The regional director is the head of the regional office.
The regional committee is composed of the member states of the region and meets annually to agree on health actions and chart priorities for the work of the WHO in the region.
The WHO South-East Asia Region is home to over 2 billion people, or a quarter of the world’s population.