Michel Sidibé

Former UNAIDS Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Former Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Mali

A long-standing champion of a people-centered approach to health and development and a strong advocate for social justice, Dr. Michel Hamala Sidibé was the second Executive Director of UNAIDS, serving from January 2009 until May 2019. He held the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
His passion for advancing global health and justice began in his native Mali, where he took up the cause of the health and well-being of the nomadic Tuareg people, ultimately leading to his appointment as Mali’s first country director for Terre des Hommes.
In 1987, he joined the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. During a 14-year career at UNICEF, Michel supervised technical assistance programs to 10 French-speaking countries in the formulation of their national programs. He then served as a Representative in Swaziland, Burundi, and Uganda.

In 2001, Dr. Sidibé joined UNAIDS as Country and Regional Support Director. He organized a reform to transform “UNAIDS into a more focused, effective and efficient joint program capable of delivering results at the country level.” In 2007, he was appointed Deputy Executive Director of Programs at UNAIDS and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. In 2008, he was appointed Executive Director of UNAIDS in Geneva. Under his leadership of UNAIDS, more and more countries adopted a Fast-Track approach through which the achievement of a set of measurable targets by 2020 will set the world on course to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In May 2019, he was appointed Minister of Health and Social Affairs in Mali, where he developed the Mali Action Plan, modeled on the World Health Organization’s framework. In 2020, he led the country’s XOF 55 billion COVID-19 Response Plan and formed the National Agency for Reproductive Health to revolutionize maternal and child health in Mali. In July 2019, he was appointed by the African Union to lead the global advocacy to create the African Medicines Agency (AMA).

Dr. Sidibé has received honorary doctorates from universities in the United States, including Tuskegee University in Alabama, Clark University in Massachusetts, the University of British Columbia in Canada, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Dr. Sidibé is a Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor of France, Officer of the National Order of Mali, Officer of the National Order of Benin, and Chancellor of the National Order of Chad. He has been distinguished by the order of Saint Charles of Monaco. He is Commander of the Central African Order of Merit, Commander of the Order of the Lion of Senegal. He has been honored by the Excellency Order of the Pearl of Africa of Uganda.