Akjemal Magtymova

Akjemal Magtymova is a Turkmen physician, working in the field of public health and development as an international civil servant with the United Nations.

In 2022, Magtymova was placed on leave from her position as head of the WHO's Syria office pending an investigation by the WHO into allegations against Magtymova of corruption, fraud, and abuse.

Education
Magtymova is a medical doctor specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology from the Turkmen State Medical University. She holds a Master of Science degree in Health Systems Management from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Master of Arts in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, along with certificates for continuous education in public health and management from various institutions including from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Early professional years
Magtymova dedicated her early professional years to clinical practice and epidemiological research in maternal and reproductive health with a Clinical Research Center of Mother and Child HealthCare in Turkmenistan, her home country.

The United Nations
Magtymova has been with the United Nations since 1998, working with the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organization in the South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean Regions. Magtymova’s professional trajectory focuses on planning, implementation and evaluation of development and humanitarian assistance programmes, with active contribution to the development of WHO-led technical guidelines, researches,  reports    and authored/co-authored a number of national and regional level publications.

Responsibilities
Magtymova has assumed increasing level of responsibilities throughout her career, which include provision of technical, policy and strategic advice to Ministries of Health in the reform context leading multi-stakeholder policy dialogue for equitable health financing strategies with a focus on universal health coverage     people-centered primary health care and health in all policies.

Achievements
Magtymova’s track record of resource mobilization includes, among others, a single grant of $76 million for health and nutrition for Yemen (2016), $9 million for low emission climate resilience for Maldives (2014), $20 million for maternal and child health for DPR Korea (2006). Her managerial and leadership experience ranges from development to humanitarian and complex emergency contexts involving supervision of large teams as WHO Representative as well as acting UN Resident Coordinator and Designated Official.

Controversy
In April 2021, Magtymova stated her desire to work with prison officials in Syria to prevent outbreaks of viral disease, and claimed that an unspecified number of internally displaced residents in Syria had previously been transported to "quarantine facilities" as part of WHO operations in the country. Subsequently, in October 2022, Magtymova was accused of corruption, fraud, and abuse by WHO staffers, and placed under formal investigation as part of "one of the biggest WHO probes in years."

Magtymova was accused of violations including misappropriating millions of dollars in agency funds, hiring relatives of Syrian government officials who were previously accused of human rights abuses, secretly meeting with Russian military officials, and acting in an "aggressive and abusive" manner to WHO staffers. Magtymova was placed on leave on an unspecified date in 2022 pending investigation of the allegations against her. In response to reports of the investigation, the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region head, Dr. Ahmed Salim Al Mandhari, sent an all-staff email claiming to be "very disturbed" by the allegations against Magtymova.