Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Thank you to President Kagame, for inviting me and for hosting this very important event. Congratulations also for the progress in malaria control in Rwanda. Congratulations also for the elimination of Human African Trypanosomiasis from Rwanda.
And congratulations on the high coverage of COVID vaccination. I think single doses are more than 70 percent and double are more than 60 percent. So, contrary to what many want us to believe, high vaccination coverage against COVID can also be done in
Africa and Rwanda has shown it, along with a number of other countries so far. And I hope everybody will.
Then, as you know, on malaria and NTDs, because of COVID there are disruptions and because of the disruptions, ours gains in the last few years, we are losing them now. So, as a result, we are off-track from the SDGs. Even before COVID it was the same,
but now even more off-track.
So, we need more political commitment and more energy going forward.
There are a few areas where I believe we need to focus.
One, we have to focus on health promotion and prevention. That has to be at the centre.
And then, for that to happen, building primary health care is important. So, we should focus on building primary health care.
Even the wealthiest countries were surprised by COVID because they haven’t invested in their primary health care and in their public health. Relatively, low-income countries were better prepared in terms of primary health care and public health.
So, investment in primary health care and public health will help us to fight malaria and NTDs in a better way.
But the key is that primary health care is not the institution alone or the facilities. It is closer to the communities and primary health care means community empowerment, community engagement. And especially involving the youth and making sure that
the youth own the programs.
I am really glad to hear from Chido Mpemba, our African Union Youth Envoy, that we have a good number of youth representatives from Youth Combatting NTDs, Malaria Youth Army and also Alma Youth Group.
By the way, because we believe in WHO that the youth has to take responsibility and has to be engaged, we are establishing a youth council. And if I’m not wrong, Youth Combatting NTDs is one of the Youth Council members that is going to be working
with WHO.
So, community ownership, especially with a clear role for the youth, will help us combat malaria and NTDs.
When we talk about community ownership, one other focus area that I would like to underline is the focus on behavioural science.
We normally neglect it, but that is actually central.
It is our behaviour that can have a significant impact in fighting malaria, NTDs, COVID, HIV or whatever.
So, we have already established, as part of our transformation in WHO, a behavioural insight unit.
And in every country, especially at the national level, the behavioural part should be considered seriously.
Then, the other thing I would like to underline, maybe to make up and to be able to reach the SDGs, is development of new tools.
This could include vaccines, and we have today inaugurated the mRNA hub here in Rwanda that will not just be for COVID but it can be for malaria, for cancer and for other diseases as well.
But I think Chimamanda was saying earlier, you have to start with the easy ones and then move – her father’s advice.
While developing new tools, we already have RTS,S, a vaccine for malaria, and we have to invest in order to make use of this vaccine that is already at hand.
Then, the other important element we need to focus on in order to catch up or compensate for the disruptions during COVID is the financing part.
When I say financing, not only global or international financing, but domestic financing.
When I say youth should be at the centre, I think the youth should influence your governments in order to allocate more funding for health and especially for malaria and the neglected diseases and for diseases that are a priority, especially in a continent
like ours.
So that is another focus we need to make.
And finally, I have two things.
One is on Mwele.
As you know, earlier this year we lost a true NTD champion, and a beloved member of our WHO family, our sister Dr Mwele Malecela.
Mwele made an incredible contribution to the fight against NTDs. In her honour, we are therefore delighted to announce that together with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we are establishing the Mwele Malecela Mentorship Programme for Women in NTDs.
The programme will provide opportunities for African women working on NTDs to gain mentorship, leadership training, skills building and other opportunities.
Mwele is no longer with us, but we hope that this programme will help to produce many African women to carry forward her legacy.
She has been an incredible colleague. She has been working with me closely with me in Geneva by the way. We lost her but continuing her legacy and carrying it forward will be important and we are happy to partner with Melinda on this programme.
So, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Melinda.
Then, the final point, is that WHO is proud to endorse the Kigali Declaration.
As the speaker before me said, what’s left is to Walk the Talk.
And maybe a last word about Chimamanda.
I was standing with my daughter, who is reading her book, Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
And when my daughter told me about Chimamanda she said, “She is really, really cool and her TED talk was nice, and she is really proud of her heritage.”
My daughter is 15 years old, and I was so happy to hear this, especially the last part: proud of her heritage.
I was proud of my daughter, her name is Blen, that she was following Chimamanda. That means my daughter is also proud of her heritage.
I think we have to be proud of our heritage. We have to be proud of Africa and we have to do everything to develop it.
Thank you so much. It has been a great honour.
Now it is time to Walk the Talk.
Thank you very much.