WHO commends Okonjo-Iweala on acceptance of appointment as Special Envoy on COVID-19 pandemic

The World Health Organisation (WHO) at the weekend commended Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for its appointment as a Special Envoy of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who announced the appointment on Friday subsequently took to his twitter handle acknowledge the acceptance of the appointment by Okonjo-Iweala. He wrote: “I am especially grateful to Sir Andrew Witty and Dr @NOIweala for accepting appointments as Special Envoys for the ACT Accelerator. We are facing a common threat, which we can only defeat with a common approach! #COVID19

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 24, 2020”

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had at the launch of the initiative, which he described as “a landmark collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics for COVID-19” on Friday announced the appointment of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former World Bank Director, as a Special Envoy of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala was offered the appointment in conjunction with a British business executive and former CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, Sir Andrew Witty.

WHO DG had explained: “The ACT Accelerator brings together the combined power of several organisations to work with speed and scale

“Each of us is doing great work, but we cannot work alone. We’re coming together to work in new ways to identify challenges and solutions together.”

WHO DG further noted that the efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic require that “the world needs these tools, and it needs them fast.

“Past experience has taught us that even when tools are available, they have been not been equally available to all.

“We cannot allow that to happen”.