Your Excellency Dr Veronika Skvortsova, my dear sister, Minister of Health of the Russian Federation,
Esteemed WHO regional directors, honourable ministers, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
First, I would like to say congratulations. The declaration that you will adopt shortly is a milestone in the history of tuberculosis.
For this to happen I thank all of you. But I would like to thank once again Dr Veronika Skvortsova, for all her leadership. Thank you, my sister.
The second person I would like to thank is Miroslav Lajčák, the President of the General Assembly. With his support we know that the UN high-level meeting next year will be a success.
It is a testament to the power of partnership.
I know that it has not always been smooth or easy – but meaningful change is rarely smooth or easy.
You have made significant commitments:
To scale up services to reduce TB deaths by 90%, and TB cases by 80%, by 2030;
To mobilise domestic financing to strengthen your health systems and reach universal health coverage for your people;
To ramp up your investments in research and innovation;
And you have undertaken to keep yourselves accountable.
These are bold promises.
You have also called on WHO to play our part.
You have asked us to support the hardest-hit countries in their national emergency responses;
You have asked us to provide strategic and technical leadership;
You have asked us to develop a global strategy for TB research;
And you have asked us to work with our Member States and civil society partners to develop the accountability framework to which we will all be held.
Today I give you my promise, on behalf of all my regional directors, that we will keep our end of the bargain.
We will follow through.
As you know, we are working to transform WHO into an organization that is focused on results and impact.
And the results you have asked us for are exactly the kinds of results we must deliver.
We have already committed to providing an update on progress to our Executive Board in January, and to the World Health Assembly in May.
Ladies and gentlemen,
As I said yesterday, we stand at a crossroads in the history of this ancient disease.
When we gather in New York in less than a year’s time, what will have changed?
What will we have done?
Will we be able to say that we have made concrete progress?
Will we have expanded services for prevention, diagnosis and treatment?
Will we have mobilized financing?
Will we have increased investments in R&D?
Or will we have simply written more documents, and held more meetings?
When the final history of tuberculosis is written, will it say that this moment was a decisive turning point – the beginning of the end?
Or will it say it was a wasted opportunity?
For the first time, we have the one key ingredient that is essential for success: political commitment.
Now we must build on that commitment with robust science, reliable data, disruptive innovation, relentless advocacy, and dogged determination.
We must celebrate successes, and learn quickly from mistakes.
Progress must be driven from the grassroots up.
You have heard the voices of TB survivors. You have heard the voices of civil society.
It is only by empowering the communities most affected by TB that we can truly make progress.
It won’t happen in Geneva or New York. It will only happen when we give voice to those who have none, and support to those who are left behind.
We must have the courage of our convictions, but the humility to know that we can only advance by working hand-in-hand, together.
I know it’s the hardest way.
It’s the best way.
But it’s the only way.
Thank you.