Indonesia's Budi Sadikin seeks to become first Southeast Asian WHO chief

Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesia's health minister, is the only Southeast Asian in a field of six candidates vying to lead the World Health Organization when Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus steps down in August 2027. At 62, Sadikin is mounting what he describes as a serious campaign—one that would make him the first regional leader from Southeast Asia to hold the organization's top post in its history.

Over the past three months, Sadikin has consulted with more than 70 health ministers across ASEAN, Africa, and Latin America, listening to what they believe the WHO needs to change. The conversation revealed a consistent theme: the organization is trying to do too much, its finances are strained, and member states want greater say in setting their own health priorities rather than having them dictated from Geneva headquarters. Sadikin frames his candidacy around these concerns. He argues the WHO should sharpen its focus on core functions—developing scientific standards and convening governments to tackle shared health challenges—while allowing individual countries to lead in defining what matters most to them. A country battling tuberculosis has different needs than an aging society grappling with dementia, he notes. One-size-fits-all health campaigns from the center, he believes, miss this reality.

The financial picture adds urgency to his argument. The WHO's approved budget for 2026 and 2027 was cut to $4.2 billion from a proposed $5.3 billion. The U.S. withdrawal in January and pressure on foreign aid budgets amid global conflicts have deepened the squeeze. Sadikin sees this crisis as an opening for a leader with a different background. His own career path is unconventional for a WHO director-general candidate. A nuclear physicist by training, he spent decades in technology, banking, and corporate roles—including as president director of Bank Mandiri, Indonesia's largest bank—before becoming health minister in December 2020. He was retained by President Prabowo Subianto when the new administration took office in October 2024.

Sadikin argues that the WHO needs not just strong scientists to set norms but also expertise in financing and mobilizing resources. He points to Indonesia's experience managing healthcare across 280 million people spread over thousands of islands, and to his own work during the Covid-19 pandemic bringing together health and finance officials. Under Indonesia's 2022 Group of 20 presidency, the country helped launch the Pandemic Fund. The following year, Indonesia secured nearly $4 billion from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and Islamic Development Bank to strengthen its health system. Sadikin believes the WHO could play a similar role globally—helping countries translate health needs into credible plans and connecting health ministers with finance ministries and development banks willing to fund them. This approach, he argues, is especially critical for the Global South, where developing nations bear the brunt of aid cuts yet have the least voice in how global health resources are allocated.

His candidacy stands apart from the other five publicly known contenders, all of whom have careers rooted in medicine or public health. They include Saudi Arabia's Hanan Balkhy, Belgium's Hans Kluge, former Qatari health minister Hanan Mohammed Al-Kuwari, Spanish physician Maria Neira, and Armenian pediatric oncologist Gevorg Tamamyan. Sadikin said the WHO role was not something he initially sought. A close aide to Prabowo approached him about it shortly after the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, and he accepted. But as he considered the opportunity, people around him reframed it not as a job change but as a question of scale: as health minister, he could affect 280 million Indonesians; at the WHO, his reach could extend to eight billion people. That prospect resonated with him.

When asked what he would miss if the position took him from Jakarta to Geneva, Sadikin laughed and said food—Indonesian food abroad is often adapted to European tastes and loses something essential. He would also miss the warmth of Asian communities and his friendships with ASEAN health ministers, though he joked he could keep up with Singapore's Ong Ye Kung through social media and TikTok. On the question of whether countries might use financial inducements to secure votes—a practice known as "money politics" in Indonesia—Sadikin acknowledged he had heard such talk but said he had no evidence of it and would not participate. "If the world would like to choose the best person, you cannot buy that person," he said, adding that if someone won through such means, he would be sad but accepting.

The election timeline stretches ahead. Nominations closed on September 24, though the WHO will publish the official candidate list only after its final regional committee meeting on October 29. The executive board will shortlist and nominate up to three candidates in January 2027, and member states will vote to appoint the next director-general at the World Health Assembly in May. Sadikin is spending much of his time traveling and meeting health ministers, often accompanied by Indonesian ambassadors. He frames his campaign not around Indonesia's size but around the strength of government backing for his bid and the seriousness with which he is pursuing the role.