Honourable Minister Karl Lauterbach, my dear friend,
Dear Oliver and Catharina,
Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon, and it’s an honour to be back in Berlin.
They say in a crisis you find out who your friends really are, and over the past several years, Germany has been a strong and steadfast friend to WHO.
I thank my friend Minister Lauterbach and the German people for the additional contribution of €2 million you have announced today.
This builds on the significant pledge of €240 million that Chancellor Scholz made at the World Health Summit last October, as part of the WHO Investment Round.
My friend Karl, we are deeply grateful for Germany’s support, your partnership, and your leadership in global health.
And we are committed to using these funds in our global mission to promote, provide and protect health – and to keeping all countries, including Germany, safe from the threat of outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics.
These funds are an investment in a healthier and safer world, and therefore in a healthier and safer Germany.
One of the most obvious symbols of the strength of our partnership is this building, the WHO Hub for Epidemic and Pandemic Intelligence, which I had the honour of opening with Chancellor Merkel in 2022.
The Hub was created to address one of the key weaknesses exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic: the need for stronger public health intelligence globally, to identify and respond to threats faster.
Since the Hub opened, the early warning system that we operate here – called Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources – has tripled in scale to include 103 countries, and has integrated AI technology to make identifying public health threats more efficient.
Beyond these walls, Germany’s support for the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies enables us to respond rapidly to emergencies, such as the recent earthquake in Myanmar.
Germany has also provided vital support for WHO’s work in humanitarian crises in Ukraine and Yemen; for the response to outbreaks including the current Ebola outbreak in Uganda; and for our work to eradicate polio and address antimicrobial resistance.
I thank you especially Karl, for your support for the Global Health Emergency Corps, which we initiated during Germany’s G7 Presidency, together with Bill Gates.
That work is now coming to fruition, with a major exercise beginning tomorrow, Exercise Polaris, to test the capabilities of the corps.
Germany’s support is more important than ever, following the announcement by the United States that it plans to withdraw from WHO, and reductions in official development assistance by some countries.
But of course, the U.S. withdrawal from WHO is just one part of a much bigger, and much bleaker, picture, as we witness the demolition of parts of the global health architecture.
The sudden dismantling of USAID is causing havoc in countries – so far 50 countries have been affected – with severe disruptions to programmes for HIV, TB, malaria, immunization, polio, and health and humanitarian emergencies.
WHO is working with our partners to help the most affected countries as best we can.
At the same time, we have been working hard to assess the impact of the U.S. withdrawal from WHO, and to consider how we adapt in response.
After I became Director-General in 2017, we began a process of Transformation, identifying weaknesses and taking steps to address them.
One of the major risks we identified was WHO’s over-reliance on a handful of traditional donors, including the U.S.
Since then, we have taken several steps to address that risk and broaden our donor base, and as Karl said, Germany has played a key role in that process, especially leading the sustainable financing part of the Transformation
These measures are making a difference, and in the longer term, will help to make our financing more secure and sustainable.
Nevertheless, the sudden withdrawal of U.S. funding, and reductions in funding by other Member States, have still left us with an income gap of almost US$ 600 million this year alone.
We have responded to this crisis with a three-pronged approach, based on cost containment, resource mobilization and efforts to engage the U.S. and other donors.
All these measures have helped us to narrow the gap.
Nonetheless, we now have no choice but to reduce the size of our work and workforce.
As Karl said, the reduction will be done carefully and strategically, based on a prioritization exercise that we are now conducting, to ensure we focus on our core functions, core mandate, leverage our comparative advantage, and deliver the greatest possible impact with our reduced resources.
Everything is on the table, including merging divisions, departments and units, and relocating functions.
Although we face a very challenging situation, we see this as an opportunity to reshape the organization to make it more focused on its core functions, more empowered and more independent.
Even as we adjust to our new reality, WHO is continuing to do what it was established to do: supporting countries to strengthen their health systems; scanning the world for signals of outbreaks and other emergencies; and bringing countries together to meet shared threats with a shared response.
That’s what will happen next Monday, when our Member States will meet for the final time to negotiate, and hopefully conclude, the Pandemic Agreement.
The Pandemic Agreement arose from the recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic that a global emergency needs a coordinated global response.
We have come such a long way – countries have worked hard in a spirit of collaboration and compromise, and there is now agreement in almost all areas.
It’s vital that countries continue in that spirit to conclude the agreement in time for its adoption at next month’s World Health Assembly.
At a time when isolationism is in vogue and multilateralism is under assault, we need a strong signal that in these divided and divisive times, countries can still come together to collaborate and find common ground.
The Pandemic Agreement can be that signal, and we seek Germany’s commitment to making it a success.
Next Monday also happens to be World Health Day – the 77th anniversary of the day the WHO Constitution entered into force.
Like the United Nations of which we are part, WHO was born of the recognition that the only alternative to global conflict was global cooperation.
The WHO Constitution was the first instrument of international law to affirm that the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right for all people, without distinction – not health for some, not health for most, not health for the rich and powerful, but health for all.
That is the right for which I and the dedicated, committed people I am honoured to call my colleagues will continue to work every day.
As I always like to say, Gesundheit ist ein Menschenrecht.
Thank you once again to you, my dear friend Karl, to Chancellor Scholz, to the Bundestag, and to the people of Germany.
Vielen dank. Thank you so much.