Your Excellency Minister Karl Lauterbach,
Your Excellency Minister Christian Lindner,
Honourable Ministers of Health and Ministers of Finance,
Dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon, and I’m sorry I can’t be with you in person due the ongoing governance meetings here in Geneva.
One of the key lessons from the pandemic is that nationally and globally, financing for health emergency preparedness, response and resilience is inadequate.
This poses a threat not just to health, but to social and economic stability.
Today I have three financing priorities, for the present, and the future.
First, acting now.
The pandemic is not over.
Transmission is increasing in more than 70 countries, testing and sequencing are declining, and 1 billion people remain unvaccinated.
I thank all G7 countries for your generous support for the ACT Accelerator, including the latest pledges last week during the Global COVID-19 Summit, co-hosted by the United States, Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal.
That support has enabled WHO and our ACT-A partners to deliver 1.5 billion vaccines, 159 million test, more than 200 million dollars’ worth of treatments and oxygen, and more than 550 million dollars of PPE.
While vaccine supply has improved, absorption has not kept pace.
WHO is on the ground, working with UNICEF, the World Bank, Gavi and other partners to support countries that have not yet reached 70% vaccination coverage to get shots in arms as rapidly as possible, with a focus on the most at-risk groups.
For tests and new therapeutics, the problems are supply-side, with insufficient funds, and insufficient access.
Second, building for a safer future.
WHO and the World Bank estimate that 31 billion US dollars is needed every year for strengthening global health security. Two-thirds of that could come from existing resources, but that leaves a gap of 10 billion US dollars per year.
WHO supports the establishment of a Financial Intermediary Fund at the World Bank to provide catalytic and gap-filling funding.
As G20 leaders have proposed, WHO would play a central role in running the fund, by leading its technical work, to direct investments in global health security and boost country capacities to implement the International Health Regulations.
A joint finance and health ministers committee would provide oversight and coordination for national and international preparedness financing, including for the intermediary fund.
We also propose expanding the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies to ensure rapidly scalable financing for response.
Third, providing for a sustainably financed WHO.
Next week, the World Health Assembly will consider a recommendation to increase assessed contributions to 50% of our base budget over the next decade.
I also welcome the recommendation for a replenishment model, to broaden WHO’s financing base, and to provide more flexible funding.
If adopted, these recommendations will transform WHO’s ability to meet the high expectations that countries rightly have of us. We are especially grateful to Germany for leading this effort.
WHO is committed to continuing to strengthen our governance, accountability, and efficiency.
We look to the leadership of G7 countries to build a more equitable, inclusive, coherent and sustainably financed architecture for global health security.
Finally, I would like to invite you to visit our Berlin Hub for collaborative intelligence while you’re there. This is our centre for surveillance.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Minister Lauterbach and Germany for it investment in this Hub, and I encourage all G7 countries to work with the Hub closely.