New WHO Regional Director for Europe takes up office
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Wednesday, February 5
Dr. Hans Kluge has been endorsed by the WHO’s Executive Board to lead the Organization’s Regional Office for Europe for the next five years. He will direct international health work across the 53 countries of the WHO European Region, serving a population of 900 million people.
As Dr. Kluge noted, “together, we must build a pan-European culture of health, where health and well-being goals guide public and private decision-making, and everyone can make healthy choices.”
Explaining his vision for health, Dr. Kluge said that every child, every woman and every man in the region has the right to health.
“I am committed to delivering united action for better health. This means applying the best data and evidence, demanding increasing investment in health, strengthening our health systems around people’s needs, and extending inclusive and non-discriminatory access to health care to all. By doing so, we build fair, happy, sustainable societies for ourselves and generations to come,” added Dr. Kluge.
Hans Kluge will bring extensive international experience in medical practice and public health to the position of Regional Director, having worked in countries across three continents. For the past decade, before his appointment, Dr. Kluge served as Director of the Division of Health Systems and Public Health, and Special Representative of the Regional Director to combat Multi/Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis at the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Dr. Kluge is the seventh Regional Director elected to lead the WHO Regional Office for Europe, taking over from Dr. Piroska Ostlin, Regional Director ad interim, following the appointment of Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab as Deputy Director-General of the WHO in 2019.
As Regional Director, Dr. Kluge will focus the activities of the Regional Office in six strategic directions, using the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and building on WHO’s global priorities.
“In recent months, I have been fortunate to visit each and every country in the European Region, listening to the concerns and problems facing patients, caregivers, health workers, ministers and presidents alike. No single person, no one country, can tackle all the health challenges they face alone. But if we combine our efforts to find practical, context-specific approaches, we can and will,” stressed Dr. Kluge.
Dr. Kluge has 25 years of experience in medical practice and public health in numerous settings around the world. Having qualified in medicine, surgery, and obstetrics from the Catholic University of Leuven in 1994, he began his career as a family doctor in Belgium.
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group.
