Good morning. Thank you, Master of Ceremonies; your Excellency, President Robert Mugabe; honourable Minister of Health of Zimbabwe, Dr David Pagwesese Parirenyatwa; the outgoing chairman of the sixty-sixth session of the RC, Dr Nascimento do Rosario; Your Excellency, Mrs Amira Elfadil, the African Union Commission of Social Affairs, honourable ministers, distinguished colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
It makes me very proud to stand before you as the first African Director-General of WHO. I thank you for your encouragement and support throughout my campaign. When my nomination was endorsed at the African Union, His Excellency President Mugabe was chairing the summit, and it is fitting that the Regional Committee is here in Zimbabwe. So thank you so much, Your Excellency. I would also like to thank my brother, the foreign minister of Zimbabwe, Minister Simbarashe, for his support under the guidance of President Mugabe.
I also want to acknowledge the outstanding work of my sister Dr Moeti on behalf of Africa. Africa is a magnificent continent -- and working all together we will make it even healthier. It is the unity of Africa that put me in this position, although many were doubting, but we have shown that Africa’s potent force is its unity. I am now the DG for the whole world, and Africa also understand that, and together we will serve the whole world.
The campaign may be over, but our work together is just beginning, and I will continue to seek your support and encouragement.
Let me start by describing what for me was the most compelling moment since I began as Director-General less than 60 days ago. I visited Yemen where I met a mother and her malnourished child. They had travelled for hours to reach the health centre. The mother was begging the medical staff to take care of her child. But when I looked at the mother, I could see that she was skin and bone. She could well die before her child. But she was focused only on her child, not herself.
It’s this moment of human suffering that was my moment of truth. That moment defines what WHO does and why WHO exists. We must not rest until that child and that mother are saved – until there are no mothers and children in that circumstance. Let us all work together to that noble end.
Now, I am sure many of you are wondering how WHO will change in the weeks and months and years ahead, so I would like to start by outlining how I view our work during this transition period.
In times of transition it’s vitally important that we continue our important ongoing work; what I call our day-to-day business. Every day, WHO staff around the world are working hard to improve health at the country level in thousands of ways, small and large. I am ensuring this work continues without interruption.
But I have also heard from you that there is a set of urgent priorities on which we can and must act immediately. So far, I have launched several "fast track initiatives" such as:
- boosting our effectiveness in emergencies through daily briefings;
- enhancing our governance by working with the Officers of the Executive Board (“the Bureau”) to examine the work of the Executive Board and the Assembly to make it more strategic;
- making WHO an even better place to work;
- strengthening WHO’s image through better communications;
- rethinking resource mobilisation by learning from others;
- pursuing greater value for money in our travel and other expenditures;
- examining climate change in small-island nations; and
- planning for the polio transition.
These are the immediate priorities. But we have also begun to lay the groundwork for the larger, transformative changes we need to make WHO an organization better able to meet the health challenges of the 21st century.
We started by listening to your ideas. I initiated an “Ideas for Change” programme within WHO to stimulate fresh thinking and innovative ideas at all levels of the organization. We have harvested hundreds of great suggestions that we are now organizing into a strategic plan.
In that regard, we have started work on shaping our next General Programme of Work which will guide the strategy of WHO between 2019 and 2023.
You will be considering a draft concept note on the GPW tomorrow. I urge you to think of this as a first draft of the ideas that will go into the GPW.
We cannot proceed without your input. This is your WHO, and its priorities are ultimately determined by you, the Member States. Over the coming days, weeks and months, we will need your feedback and ideas to shape the GPW; to shape the WHO you want.
Let me take a few moments to sketch the GPW’s contours for you.
Most importantly, the starting point of our Global Programme of Work must be the Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs are the lens through which we must see all our work. They are the priorities that you, the Member States, have agreed on, and must therefore be our priorities.
The SDGs feature one goal devoted explicitly to health, but the fact is that health either contributes to, or benefits from, almost all the other goals. And some of the biggest health gains will come from improvements outside the health sector. It is therefore essential that WHO engages with partners in all relevant sectors to drive progress.
Within the context of the SDGs, the concept note for the Global Programme of Work proposes the following mission for WHO: to keep the world safe, improve health and serve the vulnerable. Let me repeat that: keep the world safe, improve health and serve the vulnerable. This is how I see the mission of WHO. To achieve that mission, we propose five strategic priorities.
First, the world expects WHO to be able to prevent, detect and respond to epidemics. I do not need to convince you of that. Ebola taught us a very painful lesson that we must never forget. And indeed, we are already learning. As my sister Dr Moeti said, when Ebola struck the Democratic Republic of the Congo earlier this year, early and decisive action ensured that the outbreak was quickly contained.
Our work on health emergencies must also include finishing the job of wiping polio from the face of the earth, and fighting the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Both demand the same urgency as a sudden outbreak.
The second priority is linked closely to the first: to provide health services in emergencies and help to rebuild health systems in fragile, conflict and vulnerable states.
For example, in the aftermath of the tragic mudslide in Freetown this month, WHO was there, distributing cholera kits, training health workers and providing psychological first aid for survivors. I would like to join Dr Moeti and use this opportunity to express my condolences and sympathy to the government and people of Sierra Leone.
The third priority is helping countries strengthen health systems to progress towards universal health coverage. I have said all roads lead to universal health coverage. Health systems are the glue that binds together all the priorities in the General Programme of Work. Access to health care is a human right. Universal health coverage is a political choice I urge countries to make.
The fourth priority is to drive progress towards the specific SDG health targets. I have already spoken about the SDGs as the frame within which we see all our work, but we also carry the responsibility of providing the practical tools and technical know-how to help countries advance towards the specific health targets.
We will focus our attention on four areas: improving the health of women, children and adolescents; ending the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases; preventing premature deaths from noncommunicable diseases; and protecting against the health impacts of climate change and environmental problems.
Finally, we provide the world’s governance platform for health. This is one of WHO’s key comparative advantages; only WHO has the authority and credibility to convene the numerous players in global health and to build consensus towards achieving shared goals. WHO can and must therefore play a vital role in orchestrating the increasingly complex global health architecture.
These are the five priorities that we are proposing will define the work of WHO in the coming years.
Now, we all know that strategies sometimes just sit on the shelf. So the draft concept note pays attention not only to what WHO will do but how it will do it (and also of course why it should do it). It lists a number of enablers, which I will not repeat here, but also several big shifts I will just highlight.
First, we will focus on outcomes and impact. It’s one thing to write an action plan; it’s another to put a plan into action. The end result of everything we do is not the publication of a report or a guideline, but the people whose health is protected or promoted by it. As the GPW takes shape, we will develop a scorecard with key indicators and measurable targets to ensure that we maintain our focus on projects and programmes that get results.
Second, we will set priorities. WHO cannot do everything; nor should we try. With your guidance, we will need to make tough decisions about where best to invest our finite resources to maximise impact. Again, the SDGs will be our guide.
Third, WHO will become more operational, especially in fragile, vulnerable and conflict states. At the same time, we will continue to play our normative, standard-setting role -- and indeed will strengthen those functions. But to do that, we need to better measure how our norms and standards are being used and implemented to improve health and save lives.
Fourth, we must put countries at the centre of WHO’s work. This seems obvious, but it bears repeating. Results don’t happen in Geneva or in regional offices; they happen in countries. Our role is to support you, our Member States, and to strengthen your health systems, achieve universal health coverage for your people and protect against epidemics in your countries. To do that, you must be in the driver’s seat.
Finally, or fifth, WHO will provide political leadership by advocating for health with world leaders. I have already had first-hand experience of the importance of mobilising political commitment for health. My first trip as DG was to Addis Ababa to the African Union Summit, and a few days later, I had the honour of addressing the G20 Summit in Hamburg. Both in the African Union and Hamburg I have seen heightened political commitment, and we made the case for health security and universal health coverage to some of the most powerful leaders at the G20.
Last week, I enjoyed a successful trip to China, which has generously agreed to increase its voluntary contribution to WHO by 50%, and another successful trip to the US and others.
WHO should not be shy about engaging with world leaders. Our cause is too important; the stakes are too high. Not only technically, but we should also work politically.
Everywhere I go, I am heartened by the enthusiasm I see for health at the highest political level. I also see huge enthusiasm for WHO and the work that you all do. I know from my own personal experience that political will is the key ingredient for change. It is not the only ingredient, but without it, change is much harder to achieve. That’s why they call it political intervention – it’s surgical intervention. For a paradigm shift, we need political intervention.
My friends, we are here because we care about the health of the world’s people. They must be foremost in all our minds this week.
The challenges we face are great. So must be our ambitions.
Let me return to the image of that mother and child I met in Yemen. That’s why I’m here. Let this image be our guide; let our collective images guide WHO.
Thank you for your hard work and dedication to our noble cause. And thank you, Your Excellency President Mugabe, for joining us despite your busy schedule. This shows your strong commitment to health, and we value that, for coming all the way from Harare to join us. Please accept, Your Excellency, my greatest respect and appreciation.
Thank you so much indeed, merci beaucoup, asante sana.