Your Excellency Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouni, President of Mauritania and Chairperson of the African Union, our guest of honour and keynote speaker,
Your Excellency Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, Federal Councillor of the Swiss Confederation,
Honourable Dr Edwin Dikoloti, President of the 77th World Health Assembly,
Mr Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee,
I would like to thank the leaders who have shared their messages via video: Secretary-General António Guterres, President Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Deputy Director-General Mike Ryan,
Our guest, Nobel Laureate Professor Katalin Karikó,
and President of the International Paralympic Committee, Andrew Parsons,
And recognition of Susie Rogers,
And we have also Olympic champions David Rudisha, Pau Gasol,
So very glad to have you all and so very glad to have all of these legends as well.
Excellencies, Ministers, Ambassadors, Heads of Delegation, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning and welcome to this 77th World Health Assembly.
Let me begin by offering my deepest condolences to the people and government of Papua New Guinea for the many lives lost in Friday's landslide. WHO has offered support and stands ready to help in any way we can.
My thanks to Councillor Baume-Schneider for Switzerland’s continued support for WHO, and your continued hospitality in hosting our headquarters here.
My thanks also to Your Excellency President El Ghazouni for being with us today, and for your commitment to health.
I applaud your determination to achieve universal health coverage by establishing the National Insurance Solidarity Health Fund to provide cover for vulnerable people throughout the country.
And your political commitment to integrate refugees from Mali into the health system in the South-East of Mauritania.
I thank you also for your commitment to co-host the first WHO Investment Round, in your capacity as Chair of the African Union – and we look forward to strengthening our partnership with the African Union during your tenure.
We remain committed to supporting the Africa CDC and the African Medicines Agency.
Thank you for your leadership, your example, and for honouring us with your participation and presence today.
My congratulations to you, Minister Dikoloti on being elected President of this Health Assembly;
My thanks to you, President Bach, for your partnership; I fully endorse all that he had said with regard to the partnership between WHO and the IOC. Since we signed our MoU a few years ago, the partnership between the two organizations has grown significantly. So my thanks to you, Thomas.
And my thanks to Farrah Eldibany for sharing with us the gift of your voice – and what a gift. Shukran Jazeelan.
===
Excellencies,
There are few gatherings like the World Health Assembly.
Although we do this every year and we take it for granted, we must not lose sight of what this is, and what it represents.
The theme of this Health Assembly is “All for Health, and Health for All”.
This room, right now, embodies that theme.
All for Health – almost every nation of the world is represented here, along with dozens of partners.
And why are we here? For the same reason the nations of the world established WHO 76 years ago: to work together towards our shared goal of health for all.
This Organization, like the UN of which it is part, was born from the ashes of the Second World War.
It was born of the recognition that the only alternative to global conflict was global cooperation.
The WHO Constitution was – and remains – a visionary statement, ahead of its time.
It was the first instrument of international law to affirm that the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right of all people, without distinction.
Today, at least 140 countries recognize the right to health in their own constitutions.
And yet, around the world, that right is often unrealised, or under threat.
At least 4.5 billion people — more than half of the world’s population — are not fully covered by essential health services, and two billion people face financial hardship due to out-of-pocket health spending.
Outbreaks, disasters, conflicts and climate change are all causing death and disability, hunger and psychological distress.
The Constitution was also visionary in recognizing – in a world less connected than ours – that promoting and protecting health in any country benefits all countries. So cooperation is in the interest of each and every nation. It does it for its own sake.
And it also recognized the reverse: that unequal development in promoting health and controlling diseases is a common danger.
That is what the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated so brutally.
And that is why you, the nations of the world, agreed two-and-a-half years ago to develop a legally-binding agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response; and to strengthen the International Health Regulations.
The task before you was immense, technically, legally and politically.
And you were operating on a very ambitious timeline.
I thank all Member States for the way you have engaged in this process over the past two-and-a-half years.
You have demonstrated a clear commitment to reaching agreement.
You have approached your task with determination and good faith.
You have worked long days and nights - sometimes until 4 a.m. - if you did not have commitment, you would not do that.
You have operated amid a torrent of mis- and disinformation.
You have come a very long way and found much common ground.
And you have demonstrated that multilateralism is alive and well.
Of course, we all wish that we had been able to reach consensus on the Agreement in time for this Health Assembly and cross the finish line.
But I remain confident that you still will, because where there is a will, there is a way.
I know that there remains among you a common will to get this done. So there must always be a way.
It is now for this World Health Assembly to decide what that way is.
The solution is in your hands.
No one said multilateralism was easy, but there is no other way.
===
The threat of future pandemics is just one threat among many.
Our world is facing so many other challenges:
Conflict and insecurity in Gaza, Haiti, Sudan and Ukraine;
Climate change, displacement, poverty, inequality and polarization;
Women dying from preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth;
Children dying because they miss out on vaccines;
Outbreaks of cholera, dengue and more;
The increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions;
I could go on and on.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was off-track for the health-related targets in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Now we’re even further behind.
Between now and 2030, we must do all we can to get as far as we can towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
This week, you will consider – and hopefully adopt – the 14th General Programme of Work – our collective strategy to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, enhance equity and build resilience.
It’s not a plan for what the Secretariat will do; it’s a plan for what we will do together, as Member States, supported by the Secretariat and partners.
GPW14 incorporates lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and our aspirations for the future.
It’s anchored in our shared mission to promote, provide and protect health.
If we are to achieve that mission, WHO must be empowered and equipped, and I know you agree with me.
That’s what the first WHO Investment Round, which we launched last night, is about – and I would like to thank Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados, and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK for joining us last night, and for their strong support for the Investment Round.
Brazil confirmed that the Investment Round will be hosted through the G20, and Germany, France, and Norway confirmed that they will co-host. Thank you very much.
As you all know, WHO’s financing is fragmented and unpredictable.
Assessed contributions, which are predictable, flexible, and from every Member State, account for 17% of our total budget, only 17%. The rest comes from voluntary contributions, which are mostly unpredictable, inflexible and come from a few donors.
By the way, when WHO was founded more than 70 years ago, it was the reverse. Assessed contributions were more than 80% and voluntary contributions were less than 20%. Now it is the reverse.
We don’t know when they will come, or how much they will be.
This imbalance makes it very difficult to make long-term plans, or to attract and retain the people to implement them.
Almost one-quarter of our global workforce operates on short-term contracts.
No organization can function effectively when many of its programmes operate on a hand-to-mouth existence. Very volatile.
I thank Member States for the historic decision you made two years ago to increase assessed contributions to 50% of the base budget by 2030, and for the first increase of 20%, which you approved last year.
But for the foreseeable future, voluntary contributions will continue to make up the majority of WHO’s funding. It's a long time. It took us seven years. We will need more years to have significant progress in sustainable financing. We know that.
If we are to fulfil the mandate you have given us, those contributions must become more flexible, more predictable and more sustainable.
Of course, WHO must be a good investment. It must deliver value for money. It must deliver results.
That’s what the Transformation that we started six years ago is about.
Based on ideas from Member States, partners and our own staff, we launched the most ambitious reforms in the Organization’s history, with more than 50 initiatives.
The Transformation was based on a new and bold strategy – the 13th General Programme of Work – which was a major strategic shift for the Organization, with a data-driven focus on delivering a measurable public health impact in countries.
To support that strategy, we decided to invest significantly in science, data and digital technology. Thanks to the European Union, especially for investing in our digital technology, and that helped us to strengthen our new department.
We overhauled many of our business processes, including our supply chain process, and we’re rolling out our new enterprise resource management system, BMS, to make our HR, administrative and finance processes more efficient and modernized.
We also knew that to truly transform our Organization, we would need to transform the way it was financed.
We have started to expand our donor base and to access new sources of funding.
Member States have begun increasing assessed contributions, in line with their historic commitment.
And we are now launching the Investment Round.
We’ve also engaged in a range of innovative new partnerships, including with the International Olympic Committee.
And we have made significant progress in building a diverse, motivated, empowered and fit-for-purpose workforce – our most important asset.
Many of the issues on your agenda this week result from, or have been shaped by, the Transformation.
And while many Transformation initiatives have been fully implemented, there is still much more to be done.
In particular, our focus in the coming years is on strengthening our country offices.
To establish a core predictable presence in each country office, we have prioritised 400 positions for recruitment;
We have committed US$ 200 million to fund these posts until the end of 2025.
And we’re delegating authority to Country Representatives, empowering them to provide more responsive and timely support to our Member States. And the WHO Academy will play a significant role in strengthening the capacity of our country offices.
All of this work is about delivering an impact where it matters most – in the countries and communities we serve.
===
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
It’s often said that if WHO didn’t exist, it would need to be created - as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday - but it’s far from certain that in the current geopolitical climate, it could be.
This is a unique organization, with a unique constitutional mandate, unique expertise, a unique global footprint, unique global legitimacy, and a unique role at the centre of the global health architecture.
I ask you to empower it, enable it and equip it to play that role.
I ask you to adopt the 14th General Programme of Work.
I ask you to join those Member States who have committed to making the Investment Round a success, and fully fund the GPW with predictable and flexible financing. The Investment Round is open for all our Member States to support.
I ask you to chart a path forward for the Pandemic Agreement and the IHR amendments, so we can bring both to a conclusion as soon as possible.
I ask all of you – governments, partners, civil society, youth organizations – to speak up for the Agreement, and to speak out against misinformation.
I ask you to consider and approve the many important items on your agenda this week.
I ask you to show the world that in these divided and divisive times, nations can still come together to find a common approach to common challenges.
And I ask you to once again embody the same ideal on which WHO was founded 76 years ago: All for Health, and Health for All.
Merci beaucoup. I thank you.
