Towards united action for better health: new WHO Regional Director for Europe takes up office

Geneva, Copenhagen, 3 February 2020

Dr Hans Kluge, a Belgian national, has today been endorsed by WHO’s Executive Board to lead the Organization’s Regional Office for Europe for the next five years. He will direct international health work across the 53 countries of the WHO European Region, serving a population of 900 million people.

“Together, we must build a pan-European culture of health, where health and well-being goals guide public and private decision-making, and everyone can make healthy choices,” said Dr Kluge.

Explaining his vision for health, Dr Kluge commented, “Every child, every woman and every man in our beautiful and diverse Region has the right to health. I am committed to delivering united action for better health. This means applying the best data and evidence, demanding increasing investment in health, strengthening our health systems around people’s needs, and extending inclusive and non-discriminatory access to health care to all. By so doing, we build fair, happy, sustainable societies for ourselves and generations to come”.

A medical doctor, Hans Kluge brings extensive international experience in medical practice and public health to the position of Regional Director, having worked in countries across three continents. For the past decade, prior to today’s appointment, Dr Kluge served as Director of the Division of Health Systems and Public Health, and Special Representative of the Regional Director to combat Multi/Extensively Drug Resistant Tuberculosis at the WHO Regional Office for Europe.

Dr Kluge is the seventh Regional Director elected to lead the WHO Regional Office for Europe, taking over from Dr Piroska Östlin, Regional Director ad interim, following the appointment of Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab as Deputy Director-General of WHO in 2019.

Six strategic directions

As Regional Director, Dr Kluge will focus the activities of the Regional Office in six strategic directions, using the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals and building on WHO’s global priorities.

“In recent months, I have been fortunate to visit each and every country in the European Region, listening to the concerns and problems facing patients, caregivers, health workers, ministers and presidents alike. No single person, no one country, can tackle all the health challenges they face alone. But if we combine our efforts to find practical, context-specific approaches, we can and will,” added Dr Kluge.

The six strategic directions are:

• provide a roadmap for the Region’s future to better health
• ensure health security in the face of emergencies and other threats to health
• empower people and increase health behaviour insights
• support health transformation at all levels of health systems
• leverage strategic partnerships for better health
• take the Regional Office towards further excellence.