Saima Wazed nominated to lead WHO South-East Asia region

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed has been nominated as the next World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for South-East Asia.

“Member states voted to nominate Saima Wazed during a closed meeting at the seventy-sixth session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region,” said a WHO news release on Wednesday.

The nomination will be submitted to the WHO Executive Board during its 154th session, taking place on 22-27 January, 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The newly appointed regional director will take office on 1 February 2024, the release said.

Saima Wazed is currently completing her doctoral studies at Barry University (USA) in Organizational Leadership. She has been an advisor to the WHO director general on Mental Health and Autism since 2019 and is a member of WHO expert advisory panel on Mental Health since 2014.

She is a licensed school psychologist having worked in the public school system of Orange County and Duval County in Florida (USA) for over three years.

In August 2023, she was appointed as an associate fellow at the Global Health Program at Chatham House where she has also been serving since 2022 as a commissioner at the Commission for Universal Health.

Since 2020, she has served as Thematic Ambassador for Vulnerability for the Climate Vulnerable Forum, and from 2017 to 2019 was appointed as WHO SEARO's Goodwill Ambassador for Autism.

In Bangladesh, she is the Chief Advisor for the National Mental Health Strategic Plan 2020-2025, and since 2012 has been Chairperson of the National Advisory Committee on Autism and NDDs.