“Some personal news”
Today is my last day in the WHO Secretariat. But it’s not my last day with WHO. Because we are all WHO.
I want to thank my dear brother Tedros for the opportunity to serve and for his friendship. Working in WHO is a great privilege because WHO and the UN system are the last line of defence for the most vulnerable people in the world.
I will continue to help and support Tedros, just as I did before joining the Secretariat and while I was there. Indeed, I have been involved with WHO all my professional life: leading a WHO Collaborating Centre (the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics) and an Organization in Official Relations with WHO (Grand Challenges Canada). A lesson learned: you can do public service without being a public servant.
I came into the WHO Secretariat with Tedros as his Special Advisor. I like to joke that I came to WHO for two weeks six years ago.
On the day Dr Tedros was elected in 2017, I tweeted that he would be one of the best Directors-General WHO has ever had. I stand by my prediction. Tedros is a brilliant diplomat who has already elevated the position of WHO to Heads of State and Government. He was the leading voice for equity as he steered WHO and the world through the pandemic and is supporting Member States to encode the lessons into a pandemic accord. He has overhauled sustainable finance of WHO and continues to work to create a more results-based WHO.
I feel proud of what we have accomplished together over the past six years (with emphasis on “we” as I explain below) — in short, a more results-based WHO:
We wrote the Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 13), WHO’s strategy, which was approved unanimously by Member States in 2018. It has been described as ‘breakthrough’, with its laser focus on measurable impact in countries. Based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), GPW 13 introduced the triple billion targets of healthier populations, Universal Health Coverage, and health emergencies. It outlined WHO’s strategic shifts of leadership, global goods and country support, updating the core functions from GPW 11 which themselves derived from the WHO Constitution. For the first time, it set a vision (from the Constitution: highest attainable state of health) and mission (Promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable) for WHO. It was the most widely consulted GPW — in the Secretariat and among Member States — in WHO’s history. Despite the pandemic, Member States extended GPW 13 beyond its original five-year mandate. The consulting budget to get it done: $0. We have spent the last five years working to develop, test, and implement its key innovations, as I describe below.
We developed and tested models of how to speed up the SDGs, which are now ready to be scaled and institutionalized. These models offer important lessons for other SDGs beyond health which hopefully can be captured through opportunities like the SDG Summit (2023) and Summit of the Future (2024). You can read more details in the series on Speeding up SDGs in my blog. The models include:
the delivery for impact approach, which is currently being used by WHO to support 40 countries;
the innovation scaling approach — exemplified by the scaling of Solar Powered Oxygen in Somalia, and a plan to scale more innovations;
WHO’s system catalyst role in financial innovation — culminating in the announcement of a Health Impact Investment Platform;
multilateral partnerships through the SDG 3 Global Action Plan — culminating in the 2023 Progress Report and its honest recommendations for improving the multilateral system.
During the pandemic, I supported Dr Tedros, and worked on vaccine equity, domestic manufacturing, and transfer of know-how. The latter included a new approach to private sector partnerships in global health through shareholder activism — exemplified by Dr Tedros presenting the Oxfam resolution at the Moderna 2022 Annual General Meeting. I also wrote about leadership.
Finally, we worked on the “plumbing”, by helping to write and shape programme budgets, investment cases, results reports, communications — and align them to the strategy.
I did none of this by myself. My way of working was unusual in a bureaucracy. I did not seek to amass a large number of people reporting to me. Rather, I was an intra-preneur. I did leadership through mentorship. You can read about some of the wonderful WHO colleagues who led those initiatives, and whom I mentored and learned from, in my blog series on Speeding up the SDGs. The credit for these accomplishments goes to them. There are many others whom I do not name but to whom I am very grateful. These relationships are deeply fulfilling. Thank you to my colleagues for all that you have taught me and for your friendship.
My biggest thanks go to my brother Tedros, but I also want to give special thanks to Senait Fisseha (with whom I co-chaired Dr Tedros’ Transition), Samira Asma (who leads WHO’s Results Framework), and Zsuzsanna Jakab (who was Deputy Director-General for much of my time at WHO). It’s also been a pleasure to work on innovative finance with WHO Ambassador Ray Chambers and his team.
What’s next for me? I will work on four strategic themes:
Career advice for young (and not so young) people. Because the SDGs are only as good as the people solving them.
Speeding up the SDGs and results based multilateralism/WHO. The SDGs are in rough shape. Over the past six years, WHO has tested models of data and delivery; innovation in products, services and finance; and partnerships with multilateral agencies, civil society and the private sector — that if scaled could speed up the SDGs. Moreover, in a tight money environment the multilateral system needs to be more effective and efficient.
National security and global health. The pandemic taught us that global health is an issue in national security but we haven’t yet fully worked through the implications or addressed the political polarization that came with the pandemic.
Improving the public-private interface for social impact. Global challenges can only be solved by all sectors working together but the experience in the pandemic showed that this is not working so well. The private sector has a lot more to contribute to social impact, but that will only happen through new approaches to business models, investment, and corporate governance.
I will use four tactics:
Blog: I have greatly enjoyed writing this blog and will do more of it. So far I have tackled the first two strategic themes above. Much more to come!
Teach: I would like to share the lessons we have learned about developing more results-based WHO and speeding up SDGs with other Organizations and students of public health and public policy. I would rather teach one class in 20 universities than 20 classes in one university.
Mentor: I have mentored hundreds of people inside and outside WHO. As I explained in my blog on career advice, I see this as a pro-equity measure.
Boards: I have served on boards for the past 20 years. But now I would like to take what I have learned over many decades as a social entrepreneur in the public sector and put it to use to optimize social impact in the private sector.
My late mentor Joseph L. Rotman advised people leaving positions not to do something else immediately. I will spend some time reflecting, and pursuing the ideas above.
As the son of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Communism who came to Canada in 1956, I feel a debt to this great country, and will continue to look for opportunities to give back to Canada.
If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I would love to hear from you. You can reach me at petersingeroc@gmail.com
Peter: Thanks and well done to you plus those WHOm you worked - and continue to work - with.
Bravo Peter, and congratulations on your splendid and impactful career. You have both learned and given back so much to so many. I wish you all the best in this next phase and evolution of your career. Keep up the blog, it is terrific!