Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (61), Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), has become one of the heads of international organizations that attracts the most attention in the world through the COVID-19 crisis.
He announced on March 11, 2020 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, that the global spread of COVID-19 would be defined as a 'pandemic'.
Over the next three years, his appearance at the forefront of responding to COVID-19 and emphasizing the importance of solidarity between countries remained a symbolic scene of the pandemic era.
However, praise was not only poured out on him for leading the world's quarantine efforts. During the initial response process, it was criticized for being overly friendly to the Chinese government, and it found itself in the middle of controversy every time the theory of WHO's delayed response arose.
Tedros was born in 1965 in Asmara, then part of Ethiopia. Asmara became the capital of independent Eritrea in 1993.
His family is of Tigrayan descent, with roots in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia.
Tigrayans make up only about 6% of Ethiopia's population, but the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) was a key force in the ruling coalition after the collapse of the military regime in 1991 and dominated central politics until 2018.
Tedros later served as health minister and foreign minister in the ruling coalition government led by the TPLF. This political background became the basis for his growth, but after the civil war broke out, it became a spark for controversy over political neutrality.
It is known that his choice to become a health professional was influenced by his childhood experience of losing his younger brother when he was three or four years old.
Although he did not know exactly what disease his younger brother suffered from, he recalled several times that it was probably a preventable disease such as measles, and that he could have survived if he had received basic medical care.
He cited this experience as the starting point for his belief that everyone should receive necessary medical services regardless of circumstances or place of residence. This is also in line with the fact that he set ‘universal health coverage’ as his top priority after becoming WHO Director-General.
Tedros, who majored in biology at Asmara University, joined the Ethiopian Ministry of Health in 1986 and worked as a public health expert. Afterwards, he received a master's degree in infectious disease immunology from the University of London, England, and a doctorate in community health from the University of Nottingham.
In my doctoral program, I studied the impact of dam construction in the Tigray region on malaria transmission and control measures. Rather than viewing disease only as an object of treatment, it was approached as a public health issue that involves the environment, living conditions, and health administration.
He served as director of the Tigray region's health department and entered the central political arena by becoming health minister of the TPLF-led Ethiopian ruling coalition government in 2005.
During his seven years as Minister of Health, he worked to expand the basic health system for rural areas and the poor. Tens of thousands of health instructors were deployed across the country and the number of public health centers was increased to expand vaccination, maternal and child health, and malaria and tuberculosis treatment services to villages on the front line.
As a result, major indicators in Ethiopia's malaria, AIDS, and maternal and child health sectors improved, and Tedros began to receive attention from the international health community.
Tedros, who moved to the position of Foreign Minister in 2012, served as a diplomat representing Ethiopia on the international stage.
He was elected as WHO Director-General in May 2017 and took office in July of that year, becoming the first African to head the WHO. He put forward universal health coverage as a key goal so that everyone can access the medical services they need without financial difficulties.
When Ebola was prevalent in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018, he visited the conflict zone where armed groups continued to attack the country several times to inspect the response situation and urge support from the international community.
However, the critical test of his leadership was COVID-19, which began in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019.
WHO declared COVID-19 a 'public health emergency of international concern' on January 30, 2020. Tedros urged countries to “test, test, test again,” and emphasized that quarantine should not be subordinated to political interests.
After the vaccine was developed, fair distribution was promoted through COVAX, an international joint purchasing system, so that even low-income countries could secure supplies. He raised his voice to stop 'vaccine nationalism' towards rich countries that have taken the lead in vaccines.
Remarks that positively evaluated China's quarantine response and information disclosure in the early stages of the pandemic sparked controversy about China bias. At the time, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew funding and withdrew from the WHO, saying it was centered on China.
Tewosros denied claims that the WHO is controlled by China and countered that politicizing COVID-19 would lead to more people losing their lives.
This controversy also revealed the structural limitations of the WHO, which does not have the authority to force member countries to disclose data or impose sanctions.
While Tedros was leading the COVID-19 response, a civil war broke out in Ethiopia.
The war that began in November 2020 between the federal government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF continued until the signing of a peace agreement in 2022. Tedros was also embroiled in a political battle because he was of Tigrayan origin and had served as a minister in the TPLF-led ruling coalition government.
The Ethiopian government claimed that he was using his position as head of the WHO to support the TPLF, and Tedros countered that he did not take sides and only wanted peace.
At the same time, he repeatedly criticized the situation in which residents of Tigray, under blockade, are not supplied with medicine and food.
He also raised his voice saying that the international community is not paying enough attention to the tragedy in Tigray and that there may be racial prejudice behind it.
These remarks drew both criticism as a humanitarian appeal and criticism that he had lost his political neutrality as the head of an international organization.
Tedros was re-elected in 2022 and will serve a second five-year term.
In May of the following year, WHO lifted the international public health emergency for COVID-19 and began preparing an international agreement to jointly respond to future pandemics.
After three years of negotiations, WHO member countries adopted a pandemic agreement in May 2025 that aims to provide equitable supply of medical supplies and vaccines and strengthen information sharing and cooperation between countries. However, the signature and ratification process has not begun as negotiations on the core annex, which regulates sharing of pathogens and distribution of the resulting benefits, have not been completed.
The political environment surrounding WHO has also become difficult.
As the United States, the largest donor, officially withdrew in January 2026, WHO faced a financial crisis that required it to reduce its budget and projects and reduce its total workforce by about a quarter.
In a situation where medical staff and hospitals are under attack due to war and the threats of climate change and new infectious diseases are increasing, WHO is in a position where it must perform more roles with fewer resources.
Tedros will complete his final term in 2027.
The evaluation will likely be determined not only by the merits and demerits of the response to COVID-19, but also by the extent to which the lessons of the pandemic are established in a sustainable international cooperation system and the extent to which WHO's trust and capabilities are maintained in a divided world.
