Bangladesh PM’s daughter takes WHO top job, denying nepotism

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday selected the daughter of Bangladesh’s prime minister to be its South-East Asia director, a month after she rejected criticisms of nepotism over her application.

Saima Wazed, 49, daughter of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was accused of using her mother’s clout to get nominated to the position, allegations she has denied.

“I look forward to building a healthier South-East Asia,” Wazed posted on X, formerly Twitter, after being selected for the post heading an 11-nation region home to a quarter of the world’s population.

The job is key to driving policy-making, with respected medical journal The Lancet saying the post was “among the most important roles in global health, especially in times of crisis”.

The Lancet said in September that Wazed’s candidature “raised questions over transparency and nepotism”, noting that every other nation had put forward candidates who were either medical doctors or held doctorates, or both.

Wazed posts on X “under the username @drSaimaWazed, presumably on the strength of an honorary doctorate she was awarded earlier this year by a Bangladeshi university named after her grandfather”, the Lancet added.

Wazed’s application for the post stated she has an advanced graduate degree in school psychology from Barry University in Florida, where she is a doctoral candidate.

She beat Nepal’s Shambhu Acharya, 65, a professor of global health at the University of Washington with over three decades of experience working in senior WHO roles, in a secret ballot on Wednesday.

Wazed last month rejected claims of nepotism, pointing out she had been appointed as Bangladesh’s chief advisor for its strategic mental health plan.

“The overt and intentional erasure of my experience, and the attendant reduction of me to being simply my mother’s daughter, is sexism and must be called out as such,” she wrote in a statement.

Wazed accompanied her mother to several high-profile diplomatic events, including the G20 summit in New Delhi, BRICS Summit in South Africa and the United Nations General Assembly.

Hasina — daughter of the country’s founding leader — has been in power for 15 years and has overseen rapid economic growth but her government has been accused of corruption and human rights abuses, including a violent crackdown on opposition.

Many Hasina’s supporters in Bangladesh see Wazed as a potential successor to her mother, who faces general elections within three months.

Wazed’s nomination must be approved by the WHO’s top board in January.