A lost five years? New leadership on the horizon as Ghada Waly departs UNODC

After just over five years at the helm, Ms Ghada Waly officially left as the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in November 2025. There has been no announcement or farewell on UNODC’s website, other than confirming that John Brandolino, a U.S. lawyer who has been with the organisation since 2015, will be the Acting Executive Director for the time being. IDPC broke the news originally in June alongside a few news items in Ms Waly’s home nation of Egypt. More recently, Devex ran news of (unsuccessful) attempts by the United States to force an early exit.

But what legacy does Ms Waly leave, and what challenges await her eventual replacement?

Silence, setbacks and stagnation

Back in 2020, IDPC welcomed Ms Waly into her new role with a series of recommendations and key challenges for her attention – such as ensuring the meaningful participation of civil society, prioritising a health approach towards people who use drugs, promoting decriminalisation and a development-oriented approach to drug policy, and improving UNODC’s data collection and analysis.

On balance, progress in all the identified areas has fallen short of expectations.

One of IDPC’s recommendations in 2020 was for UNODC to 'strengthen and facilitate UN system-wide coherence on drug policy'. Ms Waly joined UNODC soon after a groundbreaking UN System Common Position on drugs was agreed by the heads of every UN agency, mandating all UN entities to ‘speak with one voice’ on drug policy and specifically endorsing harm reduction, decriminalisation and civil society engagement. UNODC was to coordinate the UN Task Team set up to implement the Common Position, so this should have been an easy win for Ms Waly. But, like so many previous attempts for greater UN-wide coordination on drug policies, the initiative wilted and withered under UNODC’s care. It took years for the Common Position to even appear on the UNODC website, and even longer for it to be translated into all UN languages. Task Team meetings were infrequent with no tangible work plans, activities or budget. UNODC made no reference to either the Common Position or the Task Team in its own 2021-2025 strategy. Instead of promoting it, UNODC continued with its own agendas and rhetoric, often in conflict with the Common Position. For example, throughout Ms Waly’s tenure, UNODC continued their reluctance to explicitly and unequivocally endorse 'harm reduction'. Key UNODC guidance and documents were published without any Task Team engagement, and the only time the Common Position was proactively utilised was when UNODC sought to shut down discussions that went beyond its broad recommendations, such as on responsible regulation for cannabis and other substances.

Another of IDPC’s recommendations in 2020 was for UNODC to 'promote a human rights approach to drug policy', and this has perhaps been the agency’s greatest failing of the last five years. UNODC stands in stark contrast to the rest of the UN family in a period that has seen more attention than ever given to the human rights impacts of drug policy – with increasing oversight from the Human Rights Council, OHCHR, UNDP and a range of other UN human rights experts. The repeated calls from civil society for Ms Waly to make statements on International Human Rights Day, or in response to blatant human rights violations unfolding across the world, have been ignored every single time. As such, under her leadership, UNODC has been complicit through their silence on wide-ranging and egregious human rights abuses committed in the name of drug control – from the death penalty and extrajudicial killings to compulsory detention, violence against people who use drugs and subsistence farmers, and much more.

During her tenure, Ms Waly also oversaw a tangible shift in focus away from drugs and towards crime and corruption mandates that were perceived as less controversial and more fundable (especially to emerging donors from the Middle East and North Africa). Within what was left of the drugs file, only a minimal portion of funding and attention was dedicated to health issues, with harm reduction being particularly sidelined.

More positively, Ms Waly can been credited with improved gender parity and geographical representation within the UNODC secretariat. However, there were also lingering suggestions of a culture of bullying and lengthy absences from Vienna. Ultimately – and in the context of global cuts to multilateral funding, a UN-wide liquidity crisis, recruitment freezes, and staff departures – Ms Waly leaves UNODC in a more precarious position now than when she started.

Many challenges await

UNODC desperately needs a bold and progressive new leader. Although the Office came out relatively unscathed from the UN Secretary General’s UN80 Initiative to transform the whole UN system and its structures, UNODC is still facing up to severe funding challenges, donor retreats and programme cuts. These are compounded by the fact that almost all of UNODC’s funding is 'earmarked' by governments for specific projects and workstreams (rather than being allocated to core or general budgets), drastically reducing the Office’s ability to set its own agenda and balance its work.

One immediate task for the new Executive Director will be the development of the new UNODC strategy for 2026 onwards. A ‘business-as-usual’ approach simply won’t work. To win back the confidence of donors and communities alike, UNODC needs to demonstrate its relevance in the modern world. How will UNODC better balance its main drugs and crime mandates? How will it engage with civil society, including in the strategy development process itself? How will it better align and work with the rest of the UN system and with the UN Common Position? How will it work to better protect the health and rights of people who use drugs and other communities directly impacted by drug policies? How will it promote the rule of law and respond to the United States bombing campaign against suspected 'drug boats' in open waters? How will it facilitate and empower the new multidisciplinary panel of independent experts when it finally begins its work in 2026 (with UNODC tasked with providing 'administrative support')?

A strong leader should seize these opportunities, answer these questions, and confidently share their vision for the organisation, its work and its beneficiaries.

What happens next?

The recruitment process for this role is complex. Every UNODC Executive Director also becomes the Director General of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV) – making this a coveted ‘Under-Secretary-General’ role within the UN system. Although there was an open call for applications earlier in the year, this appointment is a highly politicised one, and Member States were also invited to put forward candidates by 6th October. Ultimately, it is the UN Secretary General who will decide on the appointment, and this adds another layer of complexity as António Guterres is also expected to leave his role at the end of 2026, with the process to find his replacement well underway.

Despite the opaqueness of the decision-making, IDPC understands that candidates have already been interviewed for the role. It is hoped that a new Executive Director will be in place in time for the 69th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March 2026.

The sooner that a strong, transformative leader can be installed at UNODC, the sooner they can set to work in modernising the agency to reflect the rapidly changing world in which it operates. The reality is that drug policies are evolving and many governments have been experimenting with different approaches outside of the prohibitionist paradigm in an effort to better protect the health, safety and human rights of their citizens. A truly effective and relevant UN drugs agency should be able to support all rights-oriented innovative policy options and advise governments honestly, rather than clinging to outdated narratives to pander to more conservative Member States. There will, of course, be resistance from some to a more progressive approach, but if UNODC cannot modernise its thinking, then it will simply become obsolete.