Ex-Banker Eyeing Top WHO Job Says Agency Can Tap Outside Money
(Bloomberg) — The World Health Organization should look beyond its own budget for funds to support itself and member countries, according to Indonesia’s Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, who is seeking to lead the agency.
“The WHO doesn’t have to use WHO money,” Budi said in an interview Friday. “You can use other people’s money,” he added, citing the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Gates Foundation, Gavi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as possible sources of financing.
His pitch comes as the WHO faces a severe funding squeeze after losing the US, historically its biggest donor, and cutting jobs and spending. That strain has forced the agency to rethink how it pays for its work.
Budi, 62, is one of four prospective candidates so far to succeed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, whose second term ends in August 2027. He is the only contender whose career wasn’t rooted in health or medicine.
A medical degree isn’t required to lead a global health organization. Tedros isn’t a physician, while Peter Sands, the former Standard Chartered Plc chief executive officer who runs the Global Fund also came from finance.
Nominated by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Budi said it was time the world’s fourth-most populous nation had one of its citizens lead a UN body. Indonesia also sees the bid as a chance to give developing countries and the Global South a stronger voice.
A nuclear physicist by training, Budi spent much of his career in technology and finance, including at PT Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest lender by assets, and Mining Industry Indonesia.
He was heavily involved in Indonesia’s Covid-19 response before becoming health minister in December 2020. He’s since overseen healthcare for roughly 290 million people across thousands of islands.
That mix of finance and health-system experience is central to his case for the WHO role. With development aid shrinking, Budi posits that global institutions need leaders who understand where money comes from and where it goes.
At the WHO, Budi would first bring spending in line with available funds and focus on core jobs such as setting global health standards and aligning countries so they can tackle major threats.
Cuts, however, would only go so far. “Our purpose is not cutting expenses,” Budi said. “Our purpose is to make all the country members feel that WHO is very useful.”
That includes helping governments find money to strengthen their health systems. Indonesia has secured close to $8.5 billion from development banks for health, according to Budi. The WHO could help poorer nations move from grants toward cheaper loans and eventually, more domestic funding.
His case also rests on Indonesia’s position between major powers. “We are a non-bloc country. We are accepted by the south, the north, the east and the west,” he said.
That approach would extend to Washington. Budi said the door should remain open to the US and that he knows US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. personally. He would welcome talks if the two meet at the United Nations General Assembly.
Countries have until Sept. 24 to nominate candidates, with member states choosing the next director-general in May.
“Budi (a banker) may suit the times,” Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University, wrote on X on Sept. 11.
–With assistance from Jason Gale.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
