Your Excellency Commissioner Stella Kyriakides,
Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank
Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF,
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
It’s an honour to join you today.
Just yesterday I was in Cairo for the Regional Committee meeting of WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region – a region which includes Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two remaining countries with wild poliovirus.
In the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo is the mummy of Siptah, who ruled Egypt as a child in the 12th Century BCE, until he died aged around 16.
A deformity in his left foot suggests Siptah likely had polio.
This is a disease that has afflicted humanity for millennia. And now, we stand on the verge of eradicating it forever.
So far this year, just three cases of wild poliovirus have been reported in one area of Pakistan, and six cases in one area of Afghanistan.
We have polio cornered. Now is the time to keep up the pressure to ensure it does not escape and re-establish transmission elsewhere.
The innovative financing agreement we are announcing today will help us to do just that.
It is the result of a unique collaboration between the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF and WHO.
It shows how much we can do and what we can do when we work together.
The children who are not being reached with polio vaccines have most likely missed out on other essential, life-saving vaccines as well.
They live in remote areas or are part of marginalized communities, with little access to basic health services.
The new funding helps to fill a critical gap, in providing polio and other critical vaccines, and strengthening health systems to better prepare for and respond to disease outbreaks and other health threats.
This new agreement will help communities who need it the most to have access to these lifesaving vaccines and health services, and progress further along the path towards universal health coverage.
Because Health for All must mean everybody, no matter where they live or who they are.
I thank you.