A Call to Member States to Nominate and Support Dr. Moses Haregewoyn for Director-General of the World Health Organization

A Moment That Requires a Different Kind of Leadership!

The world is approaching a decisive moment in global health. The challenges confronting humanity are becoming more complex, more interconnected and more difficult to solve.

Pandemics and emerging infectious diseases remain a constant threat. Chronic diseases are rising. Climate change is creating new health emergencies. Antimicrobial resistance threatens decades of medical progress. Health-worker shortages are placing enormous pressure on health systems. Millions of people still cannot access essential healthcare. Digital technologies and artificial intelligence are transforming medicine and public health at extraordinary speed.

At the same time, trust in public institutions is under pressure. The world therefore needs more than another health leader who understands the science. It needs a leader who understands how to make health systems work. It needs a leader who can connect science with policy, policy with institutions, institutions with communities, and communities with the healthcare they need. It needs a leader who understands that the ultimate test of a health policy is not whether it looks impressive on paper.

The ultimate test is whether it improves someone’s life. That is the space in which Dr. Moses Haregewoyn has built more than three decades of professional experience. And it is why his candidacy for Director-General of the World Health Organization deserves serious consideration by Member States.

Who Is Dr Moses Haregewoyn?

Dr Moses Haregewoyn is an internationally experienced healthcare executive, public health strategist, scholar, organizational leader and community servant with more than 30 years of experience in healthcare administration, public health programme implementation, healthcare access and organizational leadership.

Born in Ethiopia and professionally established in the United States, Dr Haregewoyn has built a career across cultures, institutions and health systems. His academic preparation is multidisciplinary, including advanced qualifications in public health, organizational behaviour, business administration and sociology. His professional career began in healthcare in 1993. Since then, he has worked progressively through increasingly demanding responsibilities in healthcare management and public programme administration, ultimately becoming President of Automated Health Systems (AHS), where he has provided senior leadership since 2008.

Publicly available professional records describe him as a seasoned healthcare administrator with extensive experience working with government agencies, communities and healthcare providers. His career has been built not simply around discussing health systems, but around operating the infrastructure through which people actually access them. That distinction matters.

The Central Question of His Leadership

Dr. Haregewoyn’s career can be understood through one fundamental question:

How do we make healthcare systems work for the people who depend upon them?

It is a deceptively simple question.

But it sits at the heart of global health.

A country may adopt universal health coverage.

But can people enrol?

Can they understand their rights?

Can they find a provider?

Can they navigate the system?

Can vulnerable communities obtain assistance?

Can governments identify people who are falling through the cracks?

Can health programmes communicate effectively with people who speak different languages?

Can technology reduce barriers rather than create them?

Can public institutions deliver efficiently while maintaining compassion and dignity?

These are not peripheral questions.

They determine whether health policy becomes reality.

Dr. Haregewoyn has spent much of his career working precisely at this intersection.

From Policy to People

Much of global health understandably focuses on medicine, epidemiology, vaccines, hospitals, laboratories and clinical care. But there is another layer that is equally important:

The administrative layer.

The systems that determine whether a person becomes enrolled.

The infrastructure that connects citizens to services.

The technology that supports eligibility and access.

The communication systems that explain health programmes.

The organizations that coordinate beneficiaries, providers and governments.

The mechanisms that allow a health policy to reach the person for whom it was designed.

This is where Dr. Haregewoyn has developed particular expertise.

Recent international profiles of his work have highlighted this operational dimension of health governance, arguing that health policy can fail not because the policy itself is wrong, but because the administrative infrastructure required to carry it to citizens is inadequate.

Dr. Haregewoyn understands the space between the health policy and the human being.

That is his distinctive contribution.

Three Decades of Practical Experience

Dr. Haregewoyn began his healthcare career in 1993 as a health-benefit educator. He subsequently held progressively senior positions in healthcare management, including work with government health programmes across multiple U.S. states. In 1999, he joined Automated Health Systems. Since 2008, he has served as its President. This career progression is important because it has exposed him to healthcare from multiple perspectives:

• the beneficiary,
• the community,
• the healthcare provider,
• the government agency,
• the programme administrator,
• the technology system,
• and ultimately, the executive responsible for making the entire system work.

That experience cannot be acquired overnight. It is the product of decades of responsibility.

Leading Complex Public Health Systems

Automated Health Systems operates in the often-unseen infrastructure of public healthcare. Its work has included beneficiary support, eligibility and enrollment services, provider administration, customer service, technology platforms and other government health-programme functions. AHS has worked with state governments on Medicaid and related public healthcare programmes. In Missouri, for example, AHS was selected by the Department of Social Services to provide beneficiary-support services, including enrollment-broker services, a web portal and provider directory for the state’s MO HealthNet programmes. Dr. Haregewoyn, as AHS President, described the organization’s role as improving the technical platform and service experience for Medicaid-eligible members.

In Wyoming, AHS was selected to operate a customer-service centre supporting eligibility and enrollment processes for state-funded health insurance programmes, with an explicit emphasis on a customer-focused model. AHS has also undertaken major provider-support and enrollment work in other states. Its current public materials describe programmes involving Medicaid provider enrollment, beneficiary services and healthcare-access functions. This is the environment in which Dr. Haregewoyn has spent much of his professional life. It is an environment defined by:

• scale,
• complexity,
• government accountability,
• technology,
• data,
• communities,
• providers,
• beneficiaries,
• and measurable performance.

The Operational Leader Who Can Help Close the Implementation Gap

Global health has historically drawn much of its leadership from medicine, epidemiology, research and international diplomacy. All of these disciplines remain indispensable. But there is another capability that the world increasingly needs:

operational health-system leadership.

The ability to take a complex policy and make it function.

The ability to coordinate institutions.

The ability to build systems.

The ability to manage large programmes.

The ability to understand beneficiaries.

The ability to use technology effectively.

The ability to identify administrative failure before it becomes a public-health crisis.

And the ability to turn institutional resources into measurable outcomes.

This is where Dr. Haregewoyn brings a distinctive professional perspective.

Universal Health Coverage – from Coverage to Access

Universal Health Coverage is one of the defining ambitions of the international health system. But universal coverage should never become a statistical exercise. A person can be technically covered and still be unable to obtain care.

They may not know how to enrol.

They may live too far from a provider.

They may not understand the system.

They may encounter language barriers.

They may lack digital access.

They may fall between government programmes.

They may not know where to turn.

Therefore, the global health community must move from asking:

“Who is covered?”

to also asking:

“Who can actually use the system?”

Dr. Haregewoyn’s professional experience makes him particularly well positioned to advance this distinction.

His vision is:

Universal Health Coverage must become Universal Health Access.

Coverage.

Access.

Navigation.

Quality.

Equity.

Outcomes.

All must work together.

Putting People at the Centre of Healthcare

Dr. Haregewoyn’s leadership philosophy is fundamentally human-centred. A health system should not be designed primarily around its bureaucracy. It should be designed around the person who needs it:

The mother trying to obtain care for her child.

The older person navigating multiple health programmes.

The rural family seeking essential services.

The person with a disability facing administrative barriers.

The migrant trying to understand an unfamiliar system.

The refugee who has lost continuity of care.

The patient who does not speak the dominant language.

The person who does not have the technological skills to navigate an increasingly digital health system.

These people should not have to become experts in healthcare administration before they can receive healthcare.

The system should adapt to the person.

Not the person to the system.

Health Equity as a Design Principle

Health equity must be more than an aspiration. It must be built into the architecture of health systems. Every major health programme should ask:

• Who is being reached?
• Who is being missed?
• Who faces the greatest barrier?
• Who cannot navigate the system?
• Which communities have the least voice?
• What happens to the most vulnerable person?

Dr. Haregewoyn’s experience in public healthcare administration has given him practical exposure to precisely these questions. His approach is therefore not simply to advocate for vulnerable populations. It is to design systems that are harder for vulnerable populations to fall through. That is a powerful distinction!

Africa and the Global Health System

Dr. Haregewoyn’s African origins are an important part of his story. But they should not be viewed merely as a matter of representation. They are part of a broader leadership perspective. Born in Ethiopia and later building a professional career in the United States, Dr. Haregewoyn embodies a connection between Africa and the wider international health system. His story reflects a world in which professionals, knowledge, technology and institutions cross borders. That perspective is especially relevant at a time when Africa’s role in global health is changing. Africa should not remain primarily a recipient of health programmes designed elsewhere. Africa must increasingly be:

a producer of knowledge,

a producer of health technologies,

a producer of vaccines and medicines,

a producer of health leaders,

and a co-designer of global health policy.

Dr. Haregewoyn can help advance that conversation.

A Bridge Between Different Worlds

The world needs health leadership capable of crossing institutional and cultural boundaries. Dr. Haregewoyn’s professional journey provides such a bridge.

Africa and North America.

Government and private-sector implementation.

Public health and organizational management.

Technology and human service.

Academic scholarship and practical execution.

Institutional leadership and community service.

This breadth is particularly relevant to WHO because no country or institution can solve today’s global health challenges alone.

The Role of Technology and Artificial Intelligence

Healthcare is entering one of the most transformative technological periods in history. Artificial intelligence, digital health, data analytics, telehealth and interoperable information systems will reshape how health services are delivered. But technological progress must be judged by one standard:

Does it improve people’s health and access to care?

Dr. Haregewoyn’s systems-oriented approach provides a strong foundation for a human-centred digital-health agenda. Technology should help countries:

• identify underserved populations;
• improve enrollment;
• strengthen disease surveillance;
• reduce administrative burdens;
• improve resource allocation;
• support healthcare workers;
• strengthen supply chains;
• provide multilingual health information;
• improve patient navigation; and
• make healthcare systems more responsive.

But technology must not become another barrier.

AI must serve humanity.

Digital health must reduce inequality.

Innovation must remain accountable.

 

Pandemic Preparedness

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that pandemic preparedness is not merely about laboratories and vaccines. It is also about:

leadership,

coordination,

data,

communication,

supply chains,

workforce capacity,

public trust,

digital systems,

and institutional resilience.

The next pandemic may emerge anywhere. The world’s response therefore depends upon the strength of every country’s health system. WHO must help Member States develop permanent preparedness capacity. The objective should be:

Prepare before the crisis.

Respond rapidly during the crisis.

Recover stronger after the crisis.

Strengthening National Health Systems

A strong WHO should not create dependency. It should create capability. The most sustainable global-health intervention is often not another temporary programme. It is a stronger national institution. WHO should help countries develop the capacity to:

• collect and use health data;
• manage healthcare programmes;
• train and retain health workers;
• strengthen primary healthcare;
• build resilient supply chains;
• expand digital infrastructure;
• finance essential services;
• coordinate public-health emergencies;
• engage communities; and
• measure results.

The goal should be national capacity, not permanent international dependence.

 

Health Workers: The Foundation of Every System

No health system can function without people.

Doctors.

Nurses.

Midwives.

Community health workers.

Public-health professionals.

Laboratory scientists.

Pharmacists.

Administrators.

Researchers.

Technicians.

Health workers need more than training.

They need functioning institutions.

They need effective leadership.

They need safe workplaces.

They need reliable systems.

They need technology that helps rather than burdens them.

They need recognition and respect.

A Dr. Haregewoyn WHO agenda would therefore treat workforce development and institutional management as inseparable components of health-system strengthening.

Primary Healthcare and Prevention

The strongest health system is not one that simply treats illness efficiently. It is one that prevents illness wherever possible. Primary healthcare must therefore remain at the heart of global health. WHO should support countries in strengthening:

• community health;
• preventive medicine;
• maternal and child health;
• vaccination;
• health education;
• early diagnosis;
• chronic disease management;
• mental health;
• nutrition;
• water and sanitation; and
• referral systems.

Healthcare should begin as close as possible to where people live.

Climate and Health

Climate change is rapidly becoming one of the defining public-health challenges of the twenty-first century.

Heat.

Floods.

Drought.

Food insecurity.

Water insecurity.

Vector-borne diseases.

Displacement.

Infrastructure damage.

All can overwhelm health systems.

WHO must therefore help countries build climate-resilient health systems capable of protecting populations before, during and after climate-related emergencies.

Restoring Trust

A global health system cannot function without trust. People must trust health professionals.

They must trust scientific evidence, public institutions, information, and international organizations.

Trust comes from:

competence,

transparency,

consistency,

communication,

accountability,

and respect.

Dr. Haregewoyn’s leadership philosophy places strong emphasis on service and stewardship.

These principles are particularly important in rebuilding confidence in public institutions.

A Leader Who Understands Organizations

Dr. Haregewoyn’s multidisciplinary academic background is another important part of his profile. His documented qualifications include advanced study in:

• Public Health;
• Organizational Behavior;
• Business Administration; and

This combination is highly relevant to global health governance. Public health asks:

What does the population need?

Sociology asks:

How do communities behave and interact?

Organizational behaviour asks:

How do institutions and people actually function?

Business administration asks:

How can complex organizations allocate resources and execute effectively?

The modern WHO Director-General needs to understand all four.

A Scholar, Educator and Community Leader

Dr. Haregewoyn’s contribution extends beyond executive leadership. He has engaged in academic teaching, research, international presentations and scholarship addressing issues of leadership, society, refugees, ethics and organizational effectiveness. His commitment to community and faith-based service also reflects a longstanding philosophy of leadership as service. This is important because global leadership should not be reduced to corporate management.

The WHO Director-General carries a responsibility to humanity. The office requires not only competence, but character.

What Makes Dr Moses Haregewoyn Distinctive?

Many accomplished physicians, distinguished epidemiologists, public-health scholars, experienced diplomats, and healthcare executives exist. But Dr Haregewoyn brings an unusual combination:

Ø  More than 30 years of healthcare experience

Ø  Senior executive leadership

Ø  Public-health expertise

Ø  Organizational leadership

Ø  Government programme experience

Ø  Healthcare-access expertise

Ø  Large-scale systems administration

Ø  Technology-enabled service delivery

Ø  Multicultural and international experience

Ø  Academic scholarship

Ø  Community service

Ø  A people-centred philosophy

His distinctive strength lies in the combination.

The Case for Dr Haregewoyn

The case for Dr. Moses Haregewoyn is ultimately a case for implementation. The world has ambitious health goals. The question is how to achieve them.

• How do we make universal health coverage real?
• How do we strengthen fragile health systems?
• How do we prepare for the next pandemic?
• How do we ensure that digital transformation benefits everyone?
• How do we improve access for vulnerable populations?
• How do we strengthen national health institutions?
• How do we restore trust?

These questions require leaders who understand not only what should be done, but how it can actually be done. That is where Dr Haregewoyn’s experience becomes relevant to the future of WHO.

Five Priorities for a Haregewoyn WHO

1. Universal Health Access

Move beyond measuring coverage to ensuring that people can actually obtain quality healthcare.

2. Stronger Health Systems

Help countries build resilient, accountable and sustainable institutions capable of delivering essential services.

3. Digital Health For Equity

Harness AI, digital systems and data to improve access while protecting privacy, ethics and human dignity.

4. Global Health Security

Strengthen pandemic preparedness, surveillance, emergency response and international coordination.

5. Trust And Human Dignity

Build health systems that communicate effectively, respect communities and treat every person with dignity.

The First Principle

Everything comes back to one principle:

A health system is only as strong as its ability to reach the person who needs it.

That principle is simple. But it is revolutionary when applied consistently. It changes how we design programmes, measure success, use technology, think about equity, build institutions, and understand global health leadership.

A Message to WHO Member States

The Director-General is not simply the public face of WHO. The Director-General is the Organization’s chief technical and administrative officer and must lead the institution while supporting Member States in advancing global public health. The next Director-General therefore needs a rare combination of:

• technical understanding,
• management capability,
• international perspective,
• diplomatic credibility,
• communication skills,
• institutional judgment,
• cultural sensitivity,
• integrity,
• and a deep commitment to public service.

Dr. Moses Haregewoyn offers a leadership profile that brings these dimensions together through more than three decades of practical experience. We therefore respectfully invite WHO Member States to examine his record, consider his vision and evaluate his candidacy on its merits.

A Call for Nomination and Support

The election of the next Director-General will shape the direction of global health for years to come. It is an opportunity to choose a leader who can help the world move:

• From commitment to implementation.
• From policy to people.
• From coverage to access.
• From fragmented systems to integrated institutions.
• From technological possibility to human benefit.
• From vulnerability to resilience.
• From distrust to confidence.

Dr. Moses Haregewoyn brings to this moment a lifetime of professional experience, academic preparation, institutional leadership and service. His story begins in Africa. His professional journey extends across the United States and international communities. His experience has been shaped by public health, organizational leadership, government partnerships, technology and service. And his central belief is universal:

Healthcare should work for everyone.

For that reason, we respectfully call upon Member States of the World Health Organization to:

Ø  Consider Dr. Moses Haregewoyn for nomination as a candidate for Director-General of the World Health Organization.

Ø  Examine his record of leadership and service.

Ø  Engage with his vision for the future of global health.

Ø  And, where they find his candidacy aligned with their national and global health priorities, support his candidacy through the WHO electoral process.

The world does not need another health promise. It needs health systems that deliver. Dr. Moses Haregewoyn’s leadership philosophy can be expressed in three words:

Ø  Access.

Ø  Equity.

Ø  Execution.

And in one enduring principle, make global health work for everyone.

 

DR. MOSES HAREGEWOYN

Candidate for Director-General of the World Health Organization

• From Policy to People.
  From Coverage to Access.
  From Systems to Health.

Making Global Health Work for Everyone.

 ABOUT DR. MOSES HAREGEWOYN

Dr Moses Haregewoyn, PhD, MBA, MA, MPH, is an internationally experienced healthcare executive, public health strategist, scholar and community leader with more than three decades in healthcare administration, public health programme implementation, healthcare access and organisational leadership. He is President of Automated Health Systems, a national health services management organisation that partners with government agencies on complex public healthcare programmes. His professional experience spans healthcare access, beneficiary services, eligibility and enrolment, provider administration, technology-enabled service delivery and large-scale government health programmes. Born in Ethiopia and professionally established in the United States, Dr Haregewoyn brings an international perspective shaped by African roots, American institutional experience and multidisciplinary academic training. His leadership philosophy is grounded in service, accountability, equity and the conviction that health policy has value only when it reaches people.