Press release 18 October 2007
Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Anders Nordström new Director-General and head of Sida

The Government today appointed Anders Nordström as the new Director-General and head of Sida.

"I am both delighted and proud to have been able to recruit Anders Nordström to head Sida. Anders combines extensive knowledge of development assistance with impressive experience of change management in large organisations. I am convinced that he has the leadership qualities needed to strengthen Sida's ability to enhance the quality and effectiveness of Swedish development assistance," comments Gunilla Carlsson, Minister for Development Cooperation.

Anders Nordström is at present Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and will take up his new post on 28 January 2008. He has a solid background in international development cooperation and since 2003 has been working at the WHO in Geneva, where between May 2006 and January 2007 he was acting Director-General. The WHO has 9 000 employees in 140 countries.

Anders Nordström has previously worked for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Geneva, for Sida in Stockholm and Zambia, and for the Red Cross in Cambodia and Iran. Anders has also worked as a medical practitioner.

The appointment came after a very thorough recruitment process, in which the Government advertised for a new head and Director-General of Sida. The advertisement appeared in five daily newspapers. A total of 55 applications were received for the position before the closing date. In conjunction with the advertising process, the Government Offices worked with a recruitment agency, which ran a parallel search using the person specification that had been drawn up.