Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield,
Ambassador Nkengasong,
Honourable Ministers, dear colleagues and friends,
I thank Secretary Blinken and the United States for hosting this important and timely discussion.
When I was first elected Director-General, people would ask me what kept me awake at night.
I answered without thinking: a pandemic of a respiratory pathogen.
COVID-19 was the realisation of my greatest fear. But it was so much more than a health crisis.
It demonstrated that when health is at risk, everything is at risk.
The pandemic had profound effects on societies, economies, businesses, schools, trade, tourism, even geopolitics. No sphere of life was untouched.
The world was unprepared for this pandemic, and it remains unprepared.
Meanwhile, threats to health are proliferating.
Urbanisation, deforestation and intensified land use provide ideal conditions for zoonotic spill overs.
Climate change is fuelling the spread of infectious diseases.
Complex and prolonged conflicts pose a critical risk to global security and health.
And while scientific advancements carry great potential for humanity, they also pose a threat.
Advances in biology, genomics and gain-of-function research have made it possible to manipulate pathogens to increase their virulence, transmission and resistance.
Adding to these challenges is increasing public scepticism about institutions and science.
No country or institution can address those challenges alone. We need collective and coordinated action.
When the next pandemic strikes, we need to be able to respond rapidly and decisively to protect communities, build trust and rapidly scale health services to save lives.
For the past three years, WHO has been working with our Member States on several initiatives to strengthen the world’s defences against epidemics and pandemics.
As you know, Member States are now in the process of negotiating a new legally-binding agreement on pandemic preparedness and response, and amendments to the International Health Regulations. The two will form the vital legal framework for a safer world.
In addition, WHO is working with Member States and partners to strengthen the governance, financing and systems for a more equitable, inclusive and coherent global health architecture.
Together with the World Bank, we’ve established the Pandemic Fund;
For enhanced accountability, the Universal Health and Preparedness Review;
For enhanced surveillance, the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, and the International Pathogen Surveillance Network;
For an enhanced emergency response workforce, the Global Health Emergency Corps;
For enhanced sharing of biological samples, the WHO BioHub System;
For enhanced monitoring, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board;
And more.
None of these initiatives alone is enough to keep the world safe; it is only their combined strength, and the combined strength of countries working together.
In our divided world, health is one of the few areas in which nations can work together across the ideological divide.
And in that sense, health can be a bridge to peace.
This is what WHO’s founders meant when they wrote in our Constitution that health is not only a fundamental human right, but also fundamental to peace and security.
And yet too often, health is politicised or even attacked, as we have seen in Gaza, Israel, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere.
Excellencies, let me leave you with three priorities for action:
First, we must close the governance gap.
I urge all Member States to deliver the pandemic agreement and the package of IHR amendments to the World Health Assembly in May, next year. This is a generational opportunity that we must not miss.
Second, we must close the financing gap. I urge all countries and partners to fully capitalize the Pandemic Fund, in line with the investment needs identified by countries.
And third, as we work to strengthen global health security, we must protect health care from politicisation and attack.
We appreciate US leadership on the Pandemic Fund and global heatlh security. But this is not new.
When I began as Minister of Health in Ethiopia in 2005, HIV was practically a death sentence.
Powerful new antiretrovirals were out of reach for lower-income countries like mine.
That changed with the advent of PEPFAR.
Globally, PEPFAR has saved 25 million lives and prevented 5.5 million babies from being born with HIV.
When President Bush started PEPFAR, the goal of an AIDS-free generation seemed implausible. Now it’s real, with 16 countries validated for the elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV.
However, we are now at a critical juncture, as funding for PEPFAR and other life-saving programmes are under pressure.
Leadership from the US is more important than ever.
By reauthorizing PEPFAR, lawmakers will send a clear signal to the world that the United States remains committed to ending AIDS and to securing a healthy and safe world for all.
I thank you.