Michel Sidibé  Michel Sidibé (born 1952 in Mali) is the Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Mali. A long-standing champion of a people-centred approach to health and development and a strong advocate for social justice, 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. Sidibé was appointed Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Mali in May 2019. Previously, he had served as UNAIDS Executive Director from January 2009 until May 2019. An outspoken advocate with a people-centred approach, he has called for the elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission and for cutting in half by 2015 the number of tuberculosis-related deaths among people living with HIV. He also champions the reform of punitive laws that stigmatize HIV. He has appealed for the removal of travel restrictions for people living with HIV and has demanded their global freedom of movement. Sidibé's passion for advancing global health began in his native Mali, where he took up the cause of the nomadic Tuareg people. His tireless efforts to improve their health and welfare evolved into a role as a country director for the international development federation Terre des Hommes. Since those early days, Sidibé has spent more than 25 years in public service. In 1987, Sidibé joined UNICEF in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). In his 14 years at UNICEF he oversaw programmes across 10 francophone countries in Africa. He also served as a UNICEF country representative in several African countries, including Burundi, Swaziland and Uganda. Sidibé became the Director of the Country and Regional Support Department of UNAIDS in 2001. In 2007, he was appointed as UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director of Programmes and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations. With this new mandate, he led UNAIDS’ contributions to regional and country responses as well as its efforts in global policies, evidence, and monitoring and evaluation. Sidibé offered his resignation from his post as head of UNAIDS following an expert report on sexual harassment in the agency that criticized his "defective leadership." Initially, when allegations surfaced in mid-2018, Sidibé refused to quit. In response to heightened scrutiny and reports of his gross mismanagement, however, Sidibé informed the agency's board on 13 December 2018 that he would leave his post in June, 2019.