Matshidiso Moeti

Dr. Matshidiso Rebecca Natalie Moeti is a physician, public health specialist and medical administrator. She is the current Regional Director of the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), headquartered in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo. She was appointed to that position on 27 January 2015, by the World Health Organization's Executive Board, sitting at its 136th session, in Geneva, Switzerland. She assumed office on 1 February 2015, to serve a renewable five-year term. This followed the endorsement of the health ministers of the 47 member countries in the Africa Region, at their meeting in Cotonou, Benin, in November 2014. She replaced Dr. Luis Gomez Sambo of Angola, who served as the Director of AFRO from 2005 until 2015.

Background and education

Dr. Moeti was born in South Africa in the 1950s and in 1978 obtained her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine of the University of London. Later, in 1986, she graduated with a Master of Science in Community Health for Developing Countries (MSc (CHDC)) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Career

In the early 1990s, Dr. Moeti worked with the Botswana Ministry of Health. The then joined UNAIDS, rising to the position of Team Leader of the Africa and Middle East Desk, based in Geneva, from 1997 until 1999. She also served as the Regional Health Advisor for UNICEF’s Regional Office for East and Southern Africa.

In 1999, she joined the WHO Regional Office in Africa, working on HIV/AIDS. She rose to the position of Assistant Regional Director, serving in that capacity from 2008 until 2011. She also served as the Director of Noncommunicable Diseases at the regional office. From 2005 until 2007, she served as the WHO Country Representative in Malawi. At the time of her appointment to her current position, she was the Coordinator of the Inter-Country Support Team for the South and East African countries of WHO African Region. On 27 November 2015, when she was appointed Director of AFRO, she became the first woman to head the office, since it was established.

Succession table as WHO Regional Director for Africa