Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
I thank our hosts, Germany for bringing us together today.
We are honoured to be joined by 40 parliamentarians from more than 30 countries.
I’m also pleased to welcome representatives of key parliamentary platforms, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights, the UHC2030 parliamentary network, UNITE, and representatives of regional parliamentary networks.
I especially thank the Bundestag's sub-committee on Global Health for hosting discussions among parliamentarians this week about sustainable financing, peace for health, and reproductive health.
As a former parliamentarian myself, I know the critical role parliaments play in driving progress in global health, by passing legislation, keeping governments accountable, allocating adequate funding for health, and by representing the needs of the communities they represent.
Parliaments will also play a key role in strengthening the global health architecture, in the areas of sustainable financing and developing and implementing the international accord for pandemic preparedness, prevention and response.
Over the last few years, WHO has intensified its engagement with parliaments on our key priorities of universal health coverage, global health security, and health promotion, especially for vulnerable groups, including women, children and adolescents.
A significant milestone was the adoption by the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly of a resolution on universal health coverage, in 2019.
This is only the first of many milestones we would like to achieve, with your support.
WHO is now rolling out our first strategy for parliamentary engagement, which includes a series of key initiatives.
I am pleased today to announce the creation of a new Global Network of Chairs of Health Committees to establish a systematic dialogue with national parliamentary bodies in charge of health, and to mobilize political support around key global health priorities
Today we are joined by chairs of health committees from all six WHO regions, who have met here to work with us on the terms of reference, composition, and concrete activities for this new network. I look forward to a fruitful collaboration.
I am also happy to introduce one of our key partners, the UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health, as a new member of the WHO partners family.
UNITE will support WHO’s engagement with parliaments, with a focus on three major areas:
Equitable access to health, with a focus on adequate budget allocation for universal health coverage;
Sustainable financing for health system strengthening, including for the work of WHO, following the decision of the World Health Assembly this year;
And strengthening the global health security architecture, especially the international accord and its implementation in countries.
Today I am honoured to be joined by my friend Dr Ricardo Baptista Leite, Member of the Portuguese National Parliament, and the President and Founder of UNITE, to sign this commitment.
Ricardo, thank you for your partnership, and I look forward to working with you closely to harness the power of parliaments with health.
Over to you.