Health lobby groups are stunned at the decision to give Zimbabwe's dictator a job, with the World Health Organisation.

Robert Mugabe has been named a goodwill ambassador, on the issue of non-communicable diseases.

But organisations including the World Heart Federation, Action Against Smoking and Cancer Research UK say they're shocked and deeply concerned.

They say his government has presided over a sharp decline in Zimbabwe's health...with many people unable to access food, clean water, basic sanitation and health care.

The group also blasts Mugabe's human rights violations, hospitals and clinics being shut down and the beatings of some health workers.