Jakarta. Indonesia’s health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin has officially joined the race to lead the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN agency announced.

The WHO is in search of the successor to the incumbent director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who will wrap up his second term in August 2027. As of the weekend, the WHO listed four individuals from different countries as the “prospective candidates”, with Indonesia proposing Budi. WHO is still accepting nominations until Sep. 24.

Other contenders include Qatar’s ex-public health minister Hanan Mohammed Al-Kuwari, Saudi physician Hanan Balkhy, as well as public health expert Hans Henri P Kluge. Balkhy is currently the WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean. Hans Kluge is now in his second term as WHO’s European regional office head.

The Jakarta Globe has tried to reach out to Budi for confirmation, including on his plans should he get elected. 

Budi is a seasoned banker who joined the government as the deputy state-owned enterprise minister in 2019. Former President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo then moved him to helm the health ministry the following year, putting the latter in a key role when Covid-19 struck the country. Budi has kept the job under the current Prabowo Subianto administration and is now focusing on providing free health checks for all, among others. 

WHO has never had an Indonesian director-general so far. The agency has recently lost one of its biggest donors, the US, following what Washington called a “mishandling” of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The WHO chief appointment is slated for May 2027. The World Health Assembly, the supreme decision-making body of the organization, will appoint the person who sits in the top seat. This assembly consists of all WHO member states.

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