Your Excellency, President Berset,
My friend, Ola Rosling of the Gapminder Foundation,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
I’d like to start with a special thank you to my friend, Your Excellency President Alain Berset, for your leadership in positioning Switzerland at the forefront of data and digital innovation.
Over the last three years, data and statistics have been vital to the response against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cases, deaths and hospitalizations;
Vaccination rates;
Case fatality ratios;
Growth rates;
Epi curves;
And so on.
These statistics have been discussed and debated not just by politicians and epidemiologists, but in the media and around the dinner table.
They have shaped decisions at the local, national and global level on public health advice, with huge ramifications for individuals, families, businesses, schools and economies:
Where and when people need to wear a mask;
Instructions to stay at home;
Limits on how many people can meet;
And more.
Good data is vital for good decisions that can be the difference between life and death.
My late friend Hans Rosling understood this better than most. He was a visionary and an advocate for strengthening the global data ecosystem.
Hans knew that we need more than just numbers to understand the world. We need insight from across sectors, with the ability to connect the dots and think critically.
Project Rosling and all the partners here today are continuing his legacy by building on momentum from the United Nations World Data Forum and the ‘Road to Bern’ dialogues in 2021.
WHO was honoured to take part in the first dialogue with the World Meteorological Organization, which sparked ideas on how we can use our comparative advantages to improve data and early warning systems.
This includes robust data governance that promotes access to health data while protecting security and privacy – both areas that WHO is committed to supporting.
It also includes projects like the UN Data Hub and WHO’s own World Health Data Hub, in partnership with Microsoft and others.
These hubs will serve as a ‘weather bell’ for data that we hope can be used to improve health and save lives.
I thank the Swiss Confederation for their leadership in this work, along with UN agencies, civil society, academia, policy-makers and the private sector who are all contributing to building a better, healthier world through stronger data systems.
Together we can bring data experts closer to end-users through data literacy, stewardship, and knowledge exchange – all areas that Project Rosling is championing.
Let me leave you with three priority areas:
First, we must encourage governments to invest in more robust data and statistics systems to drive progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
We simply cannot continue – and will not reach the SDGs – with the under-resourced and fragmented health information systems which persist in many parts of the world.
Second, we must connect data experts with policymakers, academia, the private sector and civil society to drive evidence-based decision making and rapid response, especially for health emergencies.
And third, we must improve data literacy and awareness among the general population.
Hans taught us that data can be immensely powerful when we use it to tell a story, not simply to convey facts.
WHO is committed to honouring his legacy by using data not just to make charts and graphs, but to save lives and protect health.
I look forward to continuing our collaboration.
I thank you.