Excellencies, Heads of State and Heads of Government,
Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,
First of all, I would like to thank Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Founder of the World Forum for Ethics in Business and The Art of Living Foundation, for inviting me and for bringing us all together today.
I’m very pleased that you are holding today’s meeting on World Health Day.
It has now been more than 14 months since I declared COVID-19 a global health emergency. In that time, the pandemic has brought out the best and worst in humanity.
We have seen acts of incredible courage from health workers, and from communities around the world, on a daily basis.
We have seen incredible efforts by ethical businesses to help people to thrive.
But the pandemic has also worsened inequalities in our societies, deepened global geopolitical fault lines, and frayed the bonds of trust in our public institutions.
We have seen how some businesses are trying to profit at the expense of those in need.
The world has been given a new sense of hope with the development of life-saving vaccines in record time.
But we also knew from experience that market forces alone would not achieve the equitable distribution of these life-saving tools.
Vaccine equity is the challenge of our time.
Looking at the current state of COVID vaccination, of the more than 520 million vaccine doses administered so far, over 85% have gone to high income or upper middle-income countries, while low income countries have received just 0.1%.
When countries vaccinate younger, healthy people at low risk of disease, it threatens the lives of health workers, older people and vulnerable groups in other countries.
The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage. It’s also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating.
These grave vaccine inequities could well lead to viral variants of concern gaining the upper hand and slowing the global economic recovery.
It is for this reason that WHO and partners created the Access to COVID-19 Tool Accelerator and the COVAX vaccines pillar, to bolster the equitable distribution of life-saving therapeutics, diagnostics, and vaccines to those most in need, in every country in the world.
This pandemic still has a long a way to run. Intense transmission is ongoing, and is putting enormous pressure on hospitals, intensive care units and health workers.
The decisions we all make, as leaders and individuals, can be the difference between life and death.
Over the past year, we have all been reminded of some fundamental truths:
That life is fragile;
That health is precious;
And that we are one humanity.
We may have different cultures, languages and creeds, but we share the same DNA, the same planet, and the same hopes and dreams.
The COVID-19 pandemic is not our first global crisis, and it will not be our last.
What is clear is that it has thrived amid the inequalities in our societies and the gaps in our health systems.
We have to learn the lessons of this pandemic.
Attempting to save money by neglecting environmental protection, emergency preparedness, health systems, and social safety nets, has proven to be a false economy – and the bill is now being paid many times over.
When we now start building societies for the future that fully embrace those fundamental truths, ethical business can and must play its part.
That means business that considers the impact that its actions, products and services have on the environment, people and animals.
It means business that includes ethical standards for products and service at every stage, from design to delivery.
In the aftermath of this global pandemic, we have an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen cross-sectoral collaboration and use health as a driver for development.
These efforts will not only contribute to the prevention of future pandemics, but will help to build more resilient and equitable systems, environments, economies, and societies.
Working together, we can build the healthier, safer, and fairer world we all want.
I thank you.