WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the 76th Session of the Regional Committee, WHO South-East Asia Regional Office, WHO South-East Asia (SEARO) – 30 October 2023

Honourable Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, Chair of the Regional Committee,

Honourable Ministers and Heads of Delegation,

Regional Director Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, my sister,

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

Good afternoon to you all. I'm sorry I can't be with you in person, but I look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.

I thank the Government of India for hosting this year's Regional Committee meeting, and for hosting the Regional Office. Namaste.

I commend my sister Poonam for her detailed report, with so many achievements in the last decade, especially in relation to elimination of rubella, measles and neglected tropical diseases.

These successes are a testament to your leadership, my sister Poonam.

Thank you for everything you have done over the past decade to serve the Member States and people of the region, and even beyond.

You have guided the Regional Office with a clear mind, a steady hand and a big heart.

I have very much appreciated your dedication, humility, leadership and friendship. Of course, I will miss you, but once WHO, always WHO, and I hope to work with you in another capacity.

Excellencies, dear colleagues, please join me in standing to express your appreciation for our Regional Director, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh.

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Excellencies,

This year we celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the founding of WHO.

There is much to be proud of, in this region and around the world.

But we also continue to face formidable challenges, some old, some new; some technical, some financial, some political.

This meeting therefore comes at an important time.

The United Nations General Assembly in New York this September was a historic one for health, with three High-level meetings on health issues.

Member States approved strong political declarations on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, universal health coverage and tuberculosis.

All three are relevant to the work of this region. And all three depend on a strong WHO, and a strong South-East Asia region.

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In my address to the Regional Committee last year, I outlined five priorities - the "Five Ps" - which are now becoming the basis of GPW14: to promote, provide, protect, power and perform for health.

A few words on each.

The first priority is to promote health and prevent disease by addressing its root causes, in the air people breathe, the products they consume, and the conditions in which they live and work.

In particular, this means action to address the drivers of noncommunicable diseases, including to reduce tobacco use and harmful alcohol use, improving diets, and increasing physical activity.

I welcome the Dhaka Call to Action and the SEAHEARTS initiative to enhance prevention and control of cardiovascular disease, which you will consider this week.

Promoting the health of humans also means promoting the health of the planet on which all life depends, by reducing emissions to curb air pollution and improve health and address climate change.

I am looking forward to COP28 in the United Arab Emirates in December, which for the first time will include a day dedicated to heath. I encourage all Member States to participate actively, and I use this opportunity to thank UAE, which dedicated a day - a prime day, actually - for the first time to health.

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The second priority is to provide health, by radically reorienting health systems towards primary health care, as the foundation of universal health coverage.

I am pleased to see that strengthening primary care as a key element towards achieving universal health coverage has been chosen as the topic for tomorrow's ministerial roundtable.

I'm also pleased to note that this region has the highest average availability of data for health service coverage.

Those data show encouraging signs of progress in the region, especially in terms of access to health services, which has increased substantially over the past 20 years.

In particular, services for infectious diseases have increased dramatically, enabling many Member States to eliminate diseases including rubella, measles and neglected tropical diseases, as outlined by my sister Poonam earlier in her presentation.

I welcome the Regional Strategic Framework on NTDs which you will consider this week.

However, the data also show that as health services have become more available, more and more people are facing poverty or financial hardship by accessing them.

Protecting the most vulnerable populations from financial hardship caused by out-of-pocket health spending must be a key priority for all Member States.

And indeed, Thailand has shown how this can be done, progressively decreasing the proportion of the population who face catastrophic out-of-pocket health spending over the past 20 years.

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The third priority is to protect health, by preparing countries to mitigate health risks, and to rapidly detect and respond to both acute and protracted health emergencies.

It is now almost six months since I declared an end to the global health emergencies of both COVID-19 and mpox.

However, regionally and globally, the same vulnerabilities that COVID-19 exposed persist.

During the pandemic, all countries built new capacities to prevent and control epidemics and pandemics. I urge all Member States to sustain those gains and not slip back into the cycle of panic and neglect.

The investments you have made must not go to waste. Nor must the painful lessons we have learned.

I welcome the Regional Health Security Roadmap, which you adopted last year, and I urge all Member States to continue to implement it, as we work together to build a stronger health security architecture, regionally and globally.

The new pandemic agreement, and targeted amendments to the International Health Regulations, will provide the vital legal foundations for that architecture.

I'm pleased to note that the Bureau of the International Negotiating Body has now complected its draft of the negotiating text of the pandemic agreement, which has been circulated to Member States.

At the same time, I'm aware that there remain differences between Member States on critical issues.

I am concerned that negotiations are moving too slowly, and that the accord may not be agreed in time for next year's World Health Assembly.

I urge all Member States to work with a sense of urgency, with a particular focus on resolving the most difficult and contentious issues, so that we can have the deal by May 2024, as agreed.

This is a unique opportunity that we must not miss to put in place a comprehensive agreement that addresses the lessons learned during the pandemic, with a particular emphasis on equity.

This is a generational agreement that should be written by this generation, with its lived experience of the pandemic. It's our responsibility to protect future generations.

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Promoting, providing and protecting health are proposed as the three key priorities for all Member States in the 14th General Programme of Work.

The other two Ps - powering and performing for health - are enablers of the first three.

Powering health means harnessing the power of science, research and development, data and digital technologies.

I am pleased to note that data-driven policy-making and sharing information on a common platform is on your agenda this week.

This has been a key area of work for WHO over the past six years as part of our transformation.

Leveraging the huge potential of digital technologies for health is another key priority.

I was very pleased to be in Gandhinagar, India in August, to launch the Global Initiative on Digital Health at the G20 Health Ministers' Meeting, and I thank India for its leadership - not only on this, but also on medical countermeasures and other health issues that were given clear priority during India's G20 Presidency, and I thank the Government of India for putting health at the centre of the G20 agenda.

The Global Initiative on Digital Health will support Member States by converging and convening global standards, best practices and resources for digital health transformation, rooted in people-centred, evidence-based solutions.

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And the final P, performing for health, is about the work we are doing as the Secretariat to support you better.

As you know, we are now working with Member States to develop the 14th General Programme of Work for 2025 to 2028.

Already we have had several rounds of consultation with Member States and feedback on the draft outline of the GPW14 is encouraging.

The major thrust of the GPW14 will be to achieve real change in WHO operations and capacities at country level in the context of a changing world.

In practice, this means strengthening our country offices, with a core country presence, delegation of authority, adequate financial and human resources, the implementation of global mobility, enhanced internal communications, and more.

This initiative is led by the country office heads themselves.

To support these efforts, I have squeezed 100 million US dollars from our budget to allocate to country offices.

Our Programme Budget for the next biennium is also the first in which country offices will be allocated more than half of the total budget for the biennium.

We have already increased funding flows to regions and countries, and the more flexible funding we receive, the more we can increase that amount and continue to strengthen our country offices.

Our South-East Asia Regional Office is a good model for pushing more resources to the country offices, and I hope this will continue under the new leadership.

Our work to strengthen country offices will benefit greatly from the 20% increase in assessed contributions, and by the proposal for an Investment Round, both of which you approved at this year's World Health Assembly. Thank you so much for that support.

I am happy that we are now able to present to you a White Paper for Consultation with Member States on WHO Investment, and I am pleased that financial sustainability will be discussed in this Regional Committee meeting.

I look forward to hearing from you as we work together on this critical goal.

We are also continuing our efforts to strengthen our workforce, to achieve gender equity at all levels, and to make zero tolerance for all forms of sexual misconduct a reality, and not merely a slogan.

While we have achieved gender parity this year, overall, on the average, we need to continue to improve, especially in high level positions like country office heads and director level, where parity has still not been achieved.

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Excellencies,

My thanks again to India for its hospitality and leadership, and to all Member States for your commitment to fulfilling the founding vision of our World Health Organization: the highest attainable standard of health, for all people.

I give you my personal commitment that for the remainder of my time as Director-General, I will continue to do everything I can to support you.

I will, together with the new Regional Director, strive to maintain the momentum on the important gains you have made, from disease elimination to building resilient health systems.

I look forward to working with you to reach beyond the Ministry of Health to the many other sectors that affect health.

I will continue to push for more financing of health by countries, donors, partners to sustain the gains and accelerate progress.

I will make every effort to enhance transparency and accountability at all levels of the organization, while striving to create an agile and a fit-for-purpose organization that can serve you better.

Thank you all once again for your continued commitment to promoting, providing, protecting, powering and performing for health in the region.

And again, I thank my dear sister Poonam for her leadership and all she has achieved during her tenure. We will build on her legacy.

I wish you all a very productive and successful regional conference.

I thank you. Namaste.

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