Bangladesh PM’s daughter denies nepotism in running for WHO post

An imminent election to choose the next chief of the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia Region Office (SEARO) has become unusually contentious as the post could influence the health of billions of people.

The vote in about two weeks’ time will pit Bangladeshi nominee Saima Wazed, 49, a licensed school psychologist and mental health advocate, against Nepal’s Shambhu Prasad Acharya, 65, a WHO veteran with over three decades of experience in public health.

While the campaign would normally draw little attention outside medical circles, Wazed’s candidacy has raised eyebrows because her mother happens to be Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

This has injected an additional political and diplomatic drama into the contest — Bangladesh and Nepal border India and will be expecting New Delhi’s support — while forcing Wazed to defend herself against accusations of nepotism.

The new regional director will be chosen at a closed-door meeting scheduled for Oct. 30 to Nov. 2. The other participants included in the region are Bhutan, North Korea, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and East Timor. The winner would take charge of SEARO in New Delhi on Feb. 1, replacing India’s Poonam Khetrapal Singh, who is finishing her second five-year term.

Acharya’s supporters believe he is better suited to oversee health affairs in a region home to about 2 billion people, around a quarter of the world’s population, and are pushing back against Wazed.

Bishow Parajuli, former United Nations resident coordinator and World Food Programme representative, said that by nominating Wazed, Bangladesh has chosen somebody who is “close to the system [and] not necessarily qualified” despite the country having many competent people.

He noted that Wazed has had the benefit of extensive lobbying efforts, including a trip with Hasina to New Delhi in September as special invitees to the Group of 20 summit. She also accompanied her mother to the BRICS summit in South Africa in August. Parajuli, who is based in Kathmandu, said she “is being escorted by the prime minister and introduced to the highest level.”

Wazed, who holds dual Bangladeshi and Canadian citizenship, traveled to Indonesia to attend the recent Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit as well.

“Unfortunately for Acharya, there has not been the same level of intensity of support, which we wish would be there,” Parajuli told Nikkei Asia. He noted that the Nepalese candidate has been visiting various places on his own to try to drum up support, explaining his background and experience.

“Here we have an opportunity to choose the right person and we are bringing in nepotism,” Parajuli complained.

Parajuli is not the only one raising questions about Wazed. A write-up in the independent journal Health Policy Watch published last month said regional directors matter “because they have considerable decentralized authority to influence the health chances of billions.”

The article acknowledged that Wazed’s parentage, on its own, should not be held against her.

“But being introduced by her mother at recent high-level summits such as BRICS, ASEAN, G20 and the U.N. General Assembly to craft deals in exchange for votes may be seen as crossing the fine line between a government’s legitimate lobbying for its candidate and craven nepotism.”

Wazed rejected doubts about her fitness in a response to Nikkei on Monday.

“Firstly, I would like to point out that many public health officials have endorsed me for this position,” pointing to experts in Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, the U.S., Peru, and the Philippines and offering to share their endorsements. “I feel that any reasonable and unbiased assessment of my experience and qualifications would conclude with my suitability for the role.”

Earlier, in an op-ed titled “Setting the Record Straight,” published by the Rome-headquartered Inter Press Service news agency, Wazed wrote that the SEARO election has generated “a surprising amount of attention and news coverage,” acknowledging publications that have questioned her candidacy.

“While I accept it is inevitable that there will be greater scrutiny of me due to my mother’s position, what is unfortunate is the erasure of my years of work, study and accomplishments,” she said.

Her arguments, however, appear unlikely to quiet her critics.

Some analysts see Bangladesh’s nomination of Wazed — also chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Autism for Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare — as a step toward giving her a more prominent position in her mother’s Awami League party, which has ruled the country since 2009.

Hasina faces an election in early January that has raised U.S. concerns over whether it will be free and fair.

“It appears that Wazed is being groomed for a larger political role in the time to come,” said Pallab Bhattacharya, former Dhaka correspondent of the Press Trust of India news agency and regular contributor to The Daily Star newspaper of Bangladesh. He pointed out that Wazed has been following in her mother’s footsteps in terms of reaching out to the masses and is often pictured hugging and consoling women in distress.

Bhattacharya said that Nepal’s Acharya is “more qualified,” and that India has a “delicate choice” to make in the election.

“Hasina has a very close relationship with India, and that’s why India’s dilemma has been accentuated,” he said, noting that it would not want to “hurt” its Himalayan neighbor Nepal, either.

In a statement on Oct. 8, a group of civil society leaders and public health experts in Nepal, including the former U.N. official Parajuli, maintained that Acharya “has been acknowledged by many global health professionals and leaders as the most qualified candidate for this crucial position, even beyond the present contest.”

“In contrast, the only other candidate in competition for the position is regarded by the public health and medical fraternity as a political protege with a privileged pedigree whose thin resume is not adequate to lead a complex global health institution such as WHO-SEARO,” the statement adds, demanding a “transparent” election process.

Acharya posted on X last week that he would not give up. “I believe in impossible is possible,” he wrote. “I continue to strive but [the] outcome is not in my hands.” Nikkei Asia