Kazem Behbehani

Kazem Behbehani, PhD, FRCPath (UK), of Kuwait, joined the World Health Organization’s Geneva headquarters during 1990. He became WHO Assistant Director-General for External Relations & Governing Bodies in 2003 and in 2005 he became the WHO Envoy. He co-chairs Harvard University’s scientific advisory board for the environment and public health.

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He has held several key posts at WHO headquarters in Geneva since 1990, where he first joined WHO’s Vaccine Research Unit of the global HIV/AIDS programme. He was then appointed programme manager in the Tropical Disease Research Division, and secretary of the scientific committee on chemotherapy development for African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease and Leishmaniasis. In 1994 he was appointed Director of the Control of Tropical Diseases Division and in 1998 Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Liaison Office in Geneva.

Before joining WHO, Dr Behbehani was Professor of Immunology at the Kuwait Medical Faculty and also held posts at Kuwait University: Vice President for Research, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science, Vice Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Medicine and member of the university council. He became a visiting professor at Harvard Medical School.

Over the years Dr Behbehani has developed close working relationships with various agencies and international bodies including AGFUND, OPEC Fund, Kuwait Fund, Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and the World Bank. In bringing the European Commission and WHO into a closer working relationship he pioneered industry collaboration, securing free drugs to treat elephantiasis for millions of people around the world.

Dr Behbehani is actively involved in environmental and health issues, health management, application of information technology to health (eHealth), and development of interactive educational materials for public, professional and medical use (e-learning). He has written more than 100 scientific publications and a book on science and technology.

In addition to eHealth, his current interests include preventable infectious diseases (particularly HIV/AIDS), diseases of an ageing population, and pandemics. Dr Behbehani has worked with the Japanese government to develop Japan’s initiative in the fight against infectious and parasitic diseases, which was brought to the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit in July 2000 by the then Prime Minister Ryutara Hashimoto.

His WHO Health Academy initiative catalyzed the development and adoption of a World Health Assembly resolution on eHealth and of WHO’s eHealth strategy, both of which were developed under his leadership as Assistant Director-General.

Dr Behbehani was awarded a PhD degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1972 and was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of the UK in 1995. He is a Kuwaiti national, married with two daughters, and has a keen interest in art and music.

Health based stratagy as WHO Director-General

He is currently a candidate in the next WHO Director-General elections (09 November 2006) with a vision for health based on three strategic elements:

• safeguarding and improving individual’s health by responding to the specific needs and priorities of WHO member states
• positioning WHO as an influential authority and lead agency for sustainable health and human development
• strengthening WHO’s organizational delivery and impact capacity.