'When the going gets tough’: Leadership change at UNODC amidst global turmoil, UN reforms and drug policy opportunities

Last week, Ghada Waly, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), resigned from her position citing family reasons. Her announcement came in a Friday afternoon email to all staff, and comes at a critical juncture both in terms of drug policy reform as well as geopolitics.

This is an opportunity for the UN Secretary-General to appoint a strong and courageous leader with a genuine commitment to transforming UNODC into a champion of the health- and human-rights based approach to drug policy enshrined in the UN System Common Position on drugs— including through support for harm reduction and the decriminalisation of people who use drugs.

During Ms. Waly’s five-year tenure, she is credited with focusing on efforts to improve gender parity and geographical representation within the UNODC, and reportedly increasing the global presence and budget of the agency. However, her leadership and visibility on drug policy was sparse. UNODC’s corporate strategy for the 2021 to 2025 period, developed under her leadership without any engagement with civil society and affected communities, failed to align with the strategic priorities laid down in the UN System Common Position on Drugs. This further entrenched UNODC’s disconnect with other agencies, like the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNAIDS, and the World Health Organisation.

She also failed to explicitly endorse harm reduction or decriminalisation, and never condemned the wide-ranging egregious human rights abuses committed in the name of drug control (despite the repeated calls from civil society for her to do so) — such as the state-sanctioned execution of hundreds of people for drug offences, in violation of international standards.

In fact, at the time of her appointment, several voices raised concerns about Ms Waly’s role as Egypt’s Minister for Social Solidarity under President Al Sisi’s regime, as she was in charge of overseeing the third sector at a time of severe crackdowns against civil society.

Her time in office also saw a shift in UNODC’s priorities, leaning heavily on the crime and corruption dimension of the agency’s mandate, at the expense of their drug-related work. In fact, UNODC’s drug-related portfolio is entirely dominated by supply reduction, drug law enforcement, border control and container interdiction. In spite of ill-conceived and unsuccessful efforts to fundraise for a revived global prevention programme, the reality is that UNODC’s health and development-oriented drugs projects have become negligible.

The need for a transformative leader at UNODC has never been more urgent. Against the backdrop of an ever diversifying and growing drug market and the abject failure of prohibitionist policies to achieve any of their stated aims, the winds of change have been blowing at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). In 2024, the first ever CND resolution was adopted that explicitly mentioned ‘harm reduction’, while in 2025, the CND passed a resolution that mandates an independent panel of experts to undertake a review of the UN drug policy ‘machinery’. In April, two UN member states that have been particularly vocal at the CND in favour of repressive responses, Russia and Iran, lost their seats as CND members for the coming four years, and will therefore not be able to vote on resolutions in the next four CND sessions.

UNODC’s leadership transition also now coincides with the UN Secretary-General’s broader reform process, which aims to reinvigorate and streamline the whole UN system and improve coherence across its work on peace, development and human rights. A bold new UNODC Executive Director would play a pivotal role in aligning drug policy with these reform goals—moving away from punitive approaches and toward policies rooted in dignity, equity and human rights.

In parallel, the international landscape is fraught with uncertainty. The volatility of the U.S. administration—a key player and funder of global drug control efforts—adds further urgency for strong, principled leadership at UNODC. The agency, like the rest of the UN family, is facing severe funding challenges as multiple donors delay or withdraw their support, and it will take a tenacious and brave leader to weather these storms as well as work towards greater coherence with the core UN values.

This is a moment of rare opportunity as UNODC will also be providing the administrative secretariat for the ‘multidisciplinary panel of independent experts’ to review UN drug control. Together with 183 civil society organisations, we have urged the UN Secretary-General to ensure that this review process is transformative and impactful, to bring ‘long-overdue alignment of global drug policy with the UN pillars of peace and security, human rights, and development.’ Getting the right person at the helm of UNODC will help to ensure the review is not a wasted opportunity. We therefore urge the UN Secretary-General to appoint a leader who will help to usher in a more just and effective global drug policy future.