Honourable Minister Nitzan Horowitz,
My brother Dr Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning. Bonjour. Guten tag. Dobrym utrom. Shalom
Let me begin by thanking His Excellency President Herzog, Minister Horowitz and the Government of Israel for their hospitality in hosting this year’s Regional Committee meeting
The fact that we are once again able to meet in person is testament to your success in bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control.
Here in Israel, you have done exactly what WHO called for from the beginning, in taking a comprehensive approach to reduce transmission and save lives.
We also thank you for your scientific collaboration, in sharing your experiences in dealing with different variants as they have emerged.
It’s very pleasing to see that here in Israel, and across the region, the number of weekly reported deaths is near its lowest since the pandemic began. This is good news.
Many European Member States, including Israel, are among those with the highest vaccination rates in the world
It’s especially pleasing to see that many Member States have focused on vaccinating the most at-risk groups.
However, I continue to urge caution.
One-third of the region’s population remains unvaccinated, including 25% of health workers and 20% of older people.
These vaccination gaps pose a risk to us all.
A precipitous drop in testing and sequencing is blinding us to how the virus is changing.
And with colder weather approaching in the northern hemisphere, it’s reasonable to expect an increase in transmission and death.
So I urge all Member States to focus on vaccinating all health workers and all older people, as you continue pursue the target of overall coverage of 70%
I also plead with you to increase testing and sequencing, because when it comes to virus evolution, ignorance is not bliss.
In the coming week, WHO will publish a set of six short policy briefs, outlining the essential actions that all governments can take to reduce transmission and save lives
The briefs cover the essential elements of testing, clinical management, vaccination, infection prevention and control, risk communication and community engagement, and managing the infodemic.
I hope you will use these briefs to reassess and readjust your policies to protect those most at risk, treat those who need it and save lives.
The pandemic is always evolving, and so must the response, in every country.
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Meanwhile, just as the we are beginning to hope of an end to the pandemic, another new virus has reared its head in the region: monkeypox.
Although mortality is thankfully very low, we know that this disease can cause severe pain, requiring hospitalisation.
Although this region accounted for the majority of cases at the beginning of the outbreak, it’s very pleasing to see a sustained decline in most European Member States.
But as with COVID-19, a downward trend can be the most dangerous time, if it opens the door to complacency.
We continue to recommend that all Member States persist with the measures that have worked so far:
Tailored public health interventions; testing; deep community engagement and targeted vaccination, where vaccines are available.
The effectiveness of these measures so far confirm what we have said consistently since the beginning: that with the right approach, this is an outbreak that can be stopped.
And in regions like this one, which does not have animal-to-human transmission, this is a virus that can be eliminated.
We might be “living with COVID-19” for the foreseeable future. But we don’t have to live with monkeypox.
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COVID-19 and monkeypox are both threats that have arisen from our relationship with nature.
This year another threat has cast a shadow over the region which is entirely of human origin: the pall of war.
The Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine is having a devastating impact on the physical and mental health of Ukraine’s people, with consequences that will reverberate for many years to come.
We are now seeing an increase in cases of COVID-19 in Ukraine. We project that transmission could peak in early October, and hospitals could approach their capacity threshold
Oxygen shortages are predicted because major supply sources are in occupied parts of the country.
We are also deeply concerned about the potential for the international spread of polio due to gaps in immunization coverage and mass population movement linked to the war.
WHO continues to support the Ministry of Health of Ukraine to restore disrupted services, displaced health workers and destroyed infrastructure, which is essential not only for the health of Ukraine’s people, but for the country’s resilience and recovery.
So far, WHO has helped to deliver more than 1300 metric tonnes of critical medical supplies, with more on the way.
I had the opportunity to visit and see the needs first hand last May.
These include power generators, ambulances and oxygen supplies for medical facilities; supplies for trauma and emergency surgeries; and medicines to help treat noncommunicable diseases.
We have also helped to train more than 9000 health workers on trauma surgery, mass casualties, chemical exposure, epidemiology and laboratory diagnostics;
And we’re providing stress management training for health workers and the wider population.
However, attacks on health continue unabated. In the past six months, WHO has verified 516 attacks on health, with at least 100 deaths and 129 injuries.
No health system can deliver optimum health to its people under the stress of war.
The only solution is peace, which is why we continue to call on the Russian Federation to end this war.
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Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Your agenda this week reflects the unique and complex range of challenges you face as a region, and as individual Member States.
Your agenda also reflects the five priorities I outlined in my address to the World Health Assembly three months ago.
Promoting health;
Providing health;
Protecting health;
Powering health;
And performing and partnering for health.
Allow me to discuss each one briefly.
First, promoting health.
Realising our vision for the highest attainable standard of health starts not in the clinic or the hospital, but in schools, streets, supermarkets, households and cities, and especially in our homes. That is where promoting health starts.
Much of the work that you do as Ministries of Health is dealing with the consequences of poor diets, polluted environments, unsafe roads and workplaces, inadequate health literacy, and the aggressive marketing of products that harm health.
That’s why we are calling on all Member States to make an urgent paradigm shift, towards promoting health and well-being and preventing disease by addressing its root causes, and creating the conditions for health to thrive.
The Framework for action on alcohol that you will consider this week is essential for addressing one of the major risk factors in this region, which has the world’s highest consumption of alcohol.
I’m also very pleased to see that you will consider a Regional action framework for behavioural and cultural insights for health, which is an emerging area of work for WHO.
Understanding why people make decisions that affect their health is essential for designing the right policies, programmes and interventions.
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The second priority is providing health, by reorienting health systems towards primary health care as the foundation of universal health coverage.
We know that 90% of essential health services can be delivered at the primary health care level.
This region is home to some of the most advanced health systems in the world, with high levels of service coverage and financial protection.
However, even in these Member States, ageing populations, the increasing burden of NCDs and mental health, and financial pressures are putting increasing strain on health systems.
In other Member States, there remains much work to be done to expand service coverage and financial protection, especially for the most marginalised and hardest-to-reach groups.
After all, it’s not universal health coverage if it’s not universal.
So I’m very pleased that this week you will consider a Framework for action to achieve the highest attainable standard of health for persons with disabilities.
Several other agenda items are important initiatives to push back diseases including HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, cervical cancer and tuberculosis.
Your Secretariat will continue to support you, in our country and regional offices, and at headquarters, to meet these challenges, especially by strengthening primary health care.
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The third priority is protecting health, by strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness, response and resilience.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed significant vulnerabilities in the world’s defences against epidemics and pandemics.
And the global monkeypox outbreak is yet more evidence that the world’s collective failure to address neglected diseases in neglected communities puts us all at risk.
In May, the Secretariat published a White Paper with 10 key proposals for stronger governance, strong financing, and stronger systems and tools for global health security, under the umbrella of a new, legally binding international accord, which Member States are now negotiating.
I thank those European Member States who have been instrumental in this process.
Several of the 10 proposals are already being acted on, including a new Financial Intermediary Fund for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, which was established just last week at the World Bank.
I thank Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union for your generous pledges as founding donors.
In May of this year, Portugal became the first Member State in the regions to pilot the Universal Health and Preparedness Review.
I very much appreciate the active support from European countries for your support for this mechanism, including France, Luxemburg, Switzerland and the UK.
I also thank Dr Kluge and the Regional Office for supporting Member States to strengthen their capacity to prevent, prepare for and respond to health emergencies.
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The fourth priority is powering health, by harnessing science, research, innovation, data, and digital technologies.
Advances in science and research are constantly pushing back the boundaries of the unknown and the impossible, increasing our understanding, and opening new possibilities.
Innovations in health products and service delivery give us hope of overcoming challenges that once seemed insurmountable.
Developments in big data and machine learning are helping us to see who is being left behind, where the biggest gaps are, and to track progress against our targets.
And digital technologies offer huge potential for delivering health services in new ways, to more people, especially in hard-to-reach areas.
To pick up the pace towards the “triple billion” targets and the SDGs, we must pick up the pace and scale at which science, research, innovations and digital technologies are adopted and implemented.
The Regional digital health action plan you will consider this week will be important for accelerating the use and impact of these tools across the region
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Finally, the fifth priority is performing and partnering for health, by building a stronger WHO that delivers results, and is reinforced to play its leading role.
The pandemic has demonstrated not only why the world needs WHO, but why the world needs a stronger, empowered and sustainably financed WHO.
I thank all Member States for the historic commitment you made at this year’s World Health Assembly to gradually increase assessed contributions to 50% of the base budget over the next decade.
This commitment will transform the Secretariat’s ability to deliver results where it matters most – in the lives of the people we all serve.
Maintaining momentum is vital, as the first step towards sustainability comes with the proposed 20% increase on assessed contributions in the 2024-25 budget.
As you know, even before the pandemic, we had already made major improvements in effectiveness and efficiency through the transformation journey that we have been on over the past five years.
Building on the lessons of the pandemic, we are committed to continuing that journey, and to making WHO even more effective and efficient.
In particular, our focus in the coming years is to significantly strengthen our country offices to support greater country capacity and greater country ownership – especially by strengthening the health workforce of every Member State. And we have in our possession the WHO Academy, which is available to every Member State to build their capacity.
I welcome the Strategy for collaboration between the Regional Office and Member States that you are considering this week, which I trust will help to identify areas where we can support you to implement the policies and programmes that will make the biggest difference in the lives of the people we serve.
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Excellencies,
Just over three weeks ago, I began my second term as Director-General.
I thank all Member States of the European Region for your support for my re-election at this year’s World Health Assembly. It was overwhelming and I greatly respect your trust and look forward to working with you very closely.
In the past five years, I have had the honour of meeting many of the people we serve, in this region and around the world
Ultimately, our work is not about roadmaps, action plans, strategies and agenda items, as important as those things are.
Our work is about people – and particularly the people who are poorest; the people who are most marginalised; the people who are furthest behind.
That is why we’re here.
And that is why I look forward to working with you for the next five years, as we work together to promote, provide, protect, power, perform and partner for health.
I thank you. Merci beaucoup. Vielen dank. Spasiba. Toda.