Mr Chairman,
My brother Takeshi,
Honourable Ministers and Heads of Delegation,
Distinguished guests, colleagues and friends,
First of all, I would like to say good afternoon from Geneva – it’s actually morning here. I’m really sorry I can’t be with you in person this year, but I’m really delighted I can be with you at least virtually – and with fewer carbon emissions!
As you know, I wanted to be there. It was not possible, but I’ve been to the region recently, which I really enjoyed and really learned a lot.
I would like to start by congratulating Takeshi on a successful first eight months as Regional Director. This is your first Regional Committee, and I wish you all the best.
You have already become a trusted member of WHO’s Global Policy Group.
Thank you for your leadership, partnership and friendship.
You have not wasted any time in setting out a vision “For the Future”.
This vision builds on the success of Dr Shin, and is well-aligned with the General Programme of Work and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Importantly, it’s a shared vision. I applaud the extensive and careful consultation you have done with the Member States, partners and staff.
The four thematic areas establish clear priorities: health security, including antimicrobial resistance; noncommunicable diseases and ageing; climate change and environment; and a commitment to reaching those still afflicted by communicable diseases and high rates of maternal and child mortality.
These are all priorities in the General Programme of Work.
During my trip to the Pacific a few weeks ago, I heard several of these themes again and again, especially climate change and NCDs.
I visited Tahiti, Tonga, Tuvalu and Fiji, where climate change is stealing homes, and stealing hope.
I attended the Pacific Island Health Ministers Forum in Tahiti. I heard from you first-hand about the challenges you are facing. But I also saw the energy and innovation with which you’re facing them.
I visited Tonga, where I planted a mangrove in an area which used to be a rugby field, where Tonga and Fiji played each other in 1924, but it’s now fully consumed by salt water.
I also saw the initiatives Tonga is taking to address NCDs, including the Health Promoting Schools programme to fight childhood obesity and mental health programmes.
I also attended the Pacific Island Leaders Forum, in Tuvalu, where the Prime Minister has warned that any future temperature increase will spell the total demise of his nation.
While I was there I met a young boy called Falou. I was so impressed with his knowledge of climate change.
But he said something that stayed with me. He told me that he had been discussing with his friends what they will do if Tuvalu sinks, and the majority of his friends said, we will sink with Tuvalu.
We need to hear the voices of children like Falou and Greta Thunberg, holding adults to account for the world we are leaving them.
But at the same time, I was sad that children like Falou and his friends are being robbed of their childhood by fears for their future.
That’s why we have established the initiative on Climate Change and Health in Small Island Developing States.
We held three consultations, as you know, including one in Fiji.
From those consultations, we developed an action plan, which was endorsed during the World Health Assembly in May this year, as you remember.
Our vision is that by 2030, every island in the Pacific will have a health system that is resilient to climate change. This is ambitious, but doable.
At the United Nations General Assembly two weeks ago, world leaders from all 193 UN Member States endorsed the political declaration on universal health coverage – the most comprehensive health agreement in history.
We’re very grateful for the many Prime Ministers and Ministers from the Western Pacific Region who spoke in support of the declaration, including Prime Minister Abe of Japan, who came to speak at the closing session.
I always say that health is a political choice. The declaration is a strong statement that countries are making that choice.
The task now is for all countries to live up to the commitments they have made.
The latest edition of the Global Monitoring Report on UHC includes some very good news about your region.
Between 2000 and 2017, your region recorded the largest increase in service coverage of any WHO region.
But the report also shows that we have a lot of work to do in the region.
As Dr Kasai said this morning, you are making progress on financial protection. Fewer and fewer people are being pushed into extreme poverty by out-of-pocket health spending.
But on the other hand, more and more people are being exposed to relative poverty, where health spending pushes them below 60% of median daily income.
This is a very disturbing trend.
We need a concerted effort to change direction. We cannot allow health to be a driver of widening inequality.
Honourable Ministers, dear colleagues and friends,
The agenda before you this week includes several items to support the “For the Future” vision.
Without action, antimicrobial resistance is projected to cause up to 10 million deaths a year by 2050, almost half of which would be in the Asia-Pacific Region.
The Draft Framework for Accelerating Action to Fight Antimicrobial Resistance is a strong step towards accelerating action to combat AMR in the Region.
The Framework aims to guide Member States towards: long-term and future-oriented planning; integrating AMR interventions into existing programmes and systems; broadening multisectoral engagement and societal participation; and strengthening local resilience.
AMR is a relatively new threat. A much older one is the scourge of tobacco.
The Western Pacific is home to the greatest number of smokers – 388 million, or 1 in 4 adults – and suffers almost 40% of global tobacco-related deaths.
The progress we have made is threatened by continued interference from the tobacco industry in the implementation by countries of strong tobacco control measures.
Moreover, the public health community is now facing new challenges as a result of the increasing uptake – particularly by our young people – of electronic nicotine delivery systems and novel tobacco products.
The Regional Action Plan for Tobacco Control that you will consider this week sets out a roadmap for concrete actions and policy options all countries can take.
Although we have made some progress against the tobacco epidemic, another equally dangerous threat is looming: the epidemic of childhood obesity.
During my recent trip to the Pacific, I heard two recurring themes: climate change, and childhood obesity.
In 2016, more than 84 million children were overweight or obese in Western Pacific, the highest among all WHO regions.
This represents a 43% increase in just 6 years. Frankly, this is shocking. We must call it what it is – a crisis.
We cannot sit by while some industries profit at the expense of our children.
The Regional Action Framework on Protecting Children from the Harmful Impact of Food Marketing is an important step towards safeguarding the health of future generations.
It provides a package of recommendations for comprehensive actions that can be tailored to suit Member States priorities and needs.
Just as we protect the health of our youngest, we must protect the health of the oldest.
Some countries in your region are ageing very rapidly. These trends have major implications for the design, delivery and financing of health services.
I welcome the fact that the Western Pacific Region has identified ageing as one of its priority areas of work.
Honourable Ministers, dear colleagues and friends,
WHO is committed to supporting you and your countries in each of these areas, with the experience and technical know-how to turn these plans into policies, and policies into outcomes.
That is what you expect of us.
Allow me now to say a few words about how WHO is transforming to become more effective and efficient.
Since we last met, Takeshi and the other Regional Directors and I have been hard at work transforming WHO into an agile organization that works seamlessly across all 3 levels to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals.
We now have a new programme budget to support the General Programme of Work.
To build this new budget, we turned our planning process upside down, so that country needs drive the work of the regions and headquarters.
For the first time in our history, all three levels of the organization have worked together to define exactly what headquarters will produce in the coming biennium.
As a result, we now have a list of more than 300 specific “global public health goods” that we will develop in the next two years. These are the technical tools you need to make progress towards the “triple billion” targets. All
of these came from the grass-roots.
But we’re not just changing what we do, we’re also changing how we do it.
Our new operating model aligns the organization at all three levels, and will enable us to work together more effectively and efficiently.
We are working hard to make our organization results-oriented for delivering a measurable impact at the country level, and that’s the GPW which for the first time is impact and outcome-based.
One of our key priorities was to make sure every single WHO employee can connect their work to our corporate priorities, linking strategy to daily business.
We are also committed to increasing diversity across the organization, which is essential for making our new operating model work. We’ve already achieved several quick wins, from our new intern programme to our leadership team.
To empower and equip our staff to succeed, we have started rolling out 13 new or redesigned processes to harmonize and optimize the way we do business, from the way we develop norms and standards, to planning, monitoring implementation and results, recruitment,
procurement, communications and more.
Honourable Ministers, dear colleagues and friends,
Let me finish with three challenges for the next year.
First, the challenge of primary health care.
The political declaration on Universal Health Coverage and the “For the Future” vision statement both emphasize the fundamental importance of primary health care.
High-quality primary health care, with an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention, is the best investment countries can make in addressing the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases, ageing populations and health security.
It’s also a powerful investment in equity, and in making sure our health systems are a force for reducing inequalities, not widening them.
All the ingredients are in place. Now it’s time for countries to invest and implement.
Second, the challenge of noncommunicable diseases.
The epidemics of tobacco use and childhood obesity demand strong political commitment and courageous action. I urge you to treat both issues with the same urgency that you would treat an outbreak of an infectious disease.
Third, the challenge of climate change.
Your region includes many of the countries most at risk from our changing climate. I have seen with my own eyes that this is not a theoretical threat for the future. It is a real threat now.
We need a concerted effort to mobilize resources from the Green Climate Fund and other sources to both mitigate climate change and support countries to adapt their health systems to its effects.
Health systems should also be leading the way in relying more on renewable energy, using sustainable waste management and reducing single-use plastics.
My dear brothers and sisters,
Your region is incredibly diverse, and so is the range of challenges you face.
WHO is committed – and I am personally committed – to working with each country, rich and poor, small and large, to promote health, keep your people safe, and serve the vulnerable.
Every country matters, because every person matters.
I would like to share with you one more news. During our next World Health Assembly in May 2020, a nurses choir from Tonga will join us, and that, I hope, will be a very important message to the world, to put climate change and health at the highest level
of our agenda. I hope all Pacific countries and all Western Pacific Regional Office countries can help us in making that Assembly a success.
I thank you, once again I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you. Until I see you next, I wish you all the best in your deliberations.
I thank you.