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Anders Nordström (born 9 March 1960) is a Swedish physician who served as Acting Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) from 22 May 2006 to 8 November 2006.

Career

Nordström trained as a physician at Karolinska Institutet and has experience in the field of national and international health policy and planning and strategic leadership. Nordström worked with the Swedish Red Cross in Cambodia and the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iran. He has also worked for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) for over 12 years, including 3 years in Zambia.

In 2002, Nordström briefly served as the Interim Executive Director for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Nordström became Assistant Director-General for General Management at WHO in July 2003 and, in May 2006, Acting Director-General on the death of Lee Jong-wook. Later named WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Services, one of his main contributions was to advance policy for manpower in health services, especially for low-income countries.

Nordström served as the Director General of SIDA from January 2008 to May 2010. In May 2010, after the effects of the Swedish aid-budget decline due to the financial crisis, he was requested to step down from his position because of the agency's financial difficulties.

Later, in April 2012, Minister for International Development Cooperation Gunilla Carlsson appointed Nordström as the declared "world's first Global Health Ambassador". On behalf of the Swedish Government he has the formal title as Ambassador and leads a team to oversee and strategically advise the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on a substantial global health portfolio.

In April 2015, after a tenure as Sweden's Ambassador for Global Health, Nordström was appointed back to WHO as the organisation's country representative to Sierra Leone for two years. In 2020, he was appointed to head the secretariat of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR), which is chaired by Helen Clark and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Since 2022, he has been a member of the Commission for Universal Health convened by Chatham House and co-chaired by Helen Clark and Jakaya Kikwete.

Other activities

• Virchow Prize for Global Health, Member of the Council (since 2022)

References

1. "Dr Anders Nordström becomes Acting Director-General of the World Health Organization." Geneva, WHO Press, 22 May 2006.
2. Lawrence K. Altman (9 November 2006), Hong Kong Doctor Nominated to Lead W.H.O. The New York Times.
3. "Sweden sacks aid agency chief in major overhaul." Archived 1 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine The Local: Sweden's News in English, 27 May 2010.
4. "There’s lack of political will in corruption fight – SACCORD." Archived 11 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine By Ernest Chanda, The Post Online, 2 June 2010.
5. Pamoja Consulting. "Top Bilateral Donors: A Primer" – 9. Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 23 June 2011.
6. Inna Lazareva (19 October 2017), Motorbikes, trust and pepper soup: Ebola tips to tackle deadly diseases Reuters.
7. Jenny Lei Ravelo (4 September 2020), Here's what we know so far about the COVID-19 independent panel Devex.
8. Commission for Universal Health Chatham House.
9. Council Virchow Prize for Global Health.

v t e Directors-General of the World Health Organization
Chisholm Gomes Mahler Nakajima Brundtland Lee Nordström Chan Tedros
Died in office in 2006. Acting Director-General.

• Swedish public health doctors
• Swedish civil servants
• 1960 births
• Living people
• Swedish officials of the United Nations
• World Health Organization directors-general