Gordon Brown made WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced the appointment of former Prime minister Gordon Brown, as WHO Ambassador for Global Health Financing.

In a statement, the WHO praised Brown’s handling of the 2009 financial crash, and stewardship of the London G20 summit the same year.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, hailed Mr Brown as a champion for galvanizing the world’s major economies to protect health and prevent future disease outbreaks.

Dr Tedros said: “As a longtime friend of Gordon’s, I know that he will bring his sharp intellect, firm commitment and deep sense of justice to this Ambassadorship.”

Mr Brown said: “I have a tremendous personal regard for Dr Tedros with whom I first worked two decades ago, and I am delighted to be able to help his and WHO’s work raising global finance to ensure everyone has access to health. Our immediate task is to work together to finance the vaccination of the whole world and protect the poorest countries from the terrible effects of COVID-19 and other diseases.”

Dr Tedros, the first ever WHO director-general to not be a trained medic, has garnered extensive criticism for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, and failure to obtain transparent information from Chinese authorities regarding the initial outbreak.

In 2017 Dr Tedros attracted criticism from leading human rights groups and the British government after appointing Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe as a WHO goodwill ambassador.