If GAVI board member Sadikin were to become the next director-general of the World Health Organization, who would benefit the most, member states or people like Bill Gates? perspective
Prospective World Health Organization (WHO) director-general candidate Budi Gunadi Sadikin tells the World Health Summit that if chosen, he’d work closer with political leaders to turn recommendations into actions and that he’d integrate member states, the Gates Foundation, and GAVI: the vaccine alliance to simplify WHO functions.
Kicking off the World Health Summit in Berlin on Sunday was a panel featuring four out of the seven prospective candidates to lead the WHO when Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus’s tenure ends in August, 2027.
The four candidates featured in the panel, “The Future of WHO and the Global Health Architecture,” included:
- Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari: Ministry of Public Health Affairs, Qatar
- Dr. Maria Neira: Director of the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, WHO
- Dr. Gevorg Tamamyan, Oncologist, Professor, and CEO and co-founder of the Immune Oncology Research Institute
- Budi Gunadi Sadikin: Minister of Health, Indonesia
The three candidates not present were:
- Dr. Song Li: Member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women’s Federation
- Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge: Regional Director for Europe, WHO
- Dr. Hanan Balkhy: Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, WHO
Here, we shall focus on one candidate, Sadikin.
You may recall The Sociable‘s coverage of Sadikin at the 2022 B20 Summit, where as Indonesia’s Minister of Health, he promoted vaccine passports for people to be able to “move around.”
“Let’s have a digital health certificate acknowledged by WHO — if you have been vaccinated or tested properly — then you can move around”
Budi Gunadi Sadikin, B20 Summit, November 2022
“G20 countries have agreed this digital certificate using WHO standard, and we will supp[lement] it into the next World Health Assembly in Geneva as the revision to international health regulation”
Budi Gunadi Sadikin, B20 Summit, November 2022
Now, as a prospective candidate to be the next director-general of the WHO, Sadikin is saying that he’d prefer to convene unelected and unaccountable groups like the Gates Foundation and GAVI: the vaccine alliance together with WHO member states to come up with global health policies.
Oh, and did I mention that Sadikin sits on the Board of GAVI and that GAVI was founded at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2020 with funding from the Gates Foundation?
Speaking at the World Health Summit on Sunday, Sadikin remarked that overlaps between global health institutions could be resolved by asking WHO member states what they needed, and that groups like GAVI and the Gates Foundation could help take on some of those roles and simplify the work of the WHO.
“You have to talk to the shareholders […] Gates Foundation is there, every large developed country is there, and if you believe that we need to simplify the functions of these global health institutions, first you have to ask the country which are the functions that need to be simplified, and after that you talk to the main donors of these global health institutions”
Budi Gunadi Sadikin, World Health Summit, October 2026
“Indonesia used to be a recipient country from GAVI and Global Fund, but we are also a donor. I sit at the board of GAVI,” said Sadikin, adding, “Let’s get back to the request of the country. The country wants [that] all initiatives should be country-led. Therefore, we have to ask them what do they feel about this structure, and as a member state I know there are a lot of duplications, a lot of overlap, a lot of similar budget proposals with different timing and also audits that come to all the countries.
“It is very important to integrate some of their functions. And how to do it? If you want to do mergers and acquistions, you cannot talk to the CEO. You have to talk to the shareholders.
“Fortunately, the shareholders of these global health institutions is basically around the similar names — Gates Foundation is there, every large developed country is there, and if you believe that we need to simplify the functions of these global health institutions, first you have to ask the country which are the functions that need to be simplified, and after that you talk to the main donors of these global health institutions, ‘Hey, the feedback from the country is like this; let’s do some adjustment combining some of the functions, eliminating some of them, and maybe keeping some of them.'”
Another area of reform that Sadikin would bring to the WHO would be to involve more politicians, so that WHO recommendations become national policies.
“We need to convince the political leaders, so the recommendations become actions”
Budi Gunadi Sadikin, World Health Summit, October 2026
“So many believe the WHO should help the country so they can build their own plan, their own budget. And WHO can convene all parties — philanthropic agencies, global health institutions, the development banks — to help the countries implement their plan”
Budi Gunadi Sadikin, World Health Summit, October 2026
“The biggest challenge in global health reform initiatives so far is to translate recommendations into actions,” said Sadikin.
“It is important that we involve the political leaders, so these recommendations become political commitment and political actions,” he added.
Prior to becoming Indonesia’s Minister of Health, Sadikin worked in high-level positions at Bank Bali, Bank Mandiri, ABN AMRO Bank Indonesia, PT Bank Danamon, and IBM.
And as previously mentioned, he is a board member at GAVI.
The Gates Foundation and the Gates-backed GAVI vaccine alliance already give more money to the WHO than most member states combined.
If Sadikin were to become the next director-general of the World Health Organization, who would benefit the most, member states or people like Bill Gates?
“The appointment of the next Director-General will take place at the Eightieth World Health Assembly, due to take place in May 2027,” according to the WHO.
The World Health Summit runs from October 11-13 in Berlin, Germany.
For the full context, you can check out the full World Health Summit panel “The Future of WHO and the Global Health Architecture” in the video below.
Image Source: YouTube screenshot of Budi Gunadi Sadikin at the World Health Summit, October 11, 2026
