Bureau Chair, Honourable Minister Ummy Mwalimu,
Your Excellency Ambassador Minata Samate Cessouma,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning from Geneva, and I’m sorry that I can’t be with you in person.
I thank Commissioner Minata and Minister Mwalimu for the invitation to address you, and for allowing me to join you virtually.
I welcome the theme you have chosen, which reminds us of the many challenges that our continent faces, as reflected by the “4Cs” outlined by the Specialized Technical Committee: recovery from COVID-19, the impact of conflict and climate change, and the cost of food.
Although COVID-19 is no longer an international health emergency, Africa continues to face the threat of infectious disease outbreaks, including mpox.
Since the beginning of this year, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been experiencing a severe outbreak of mpox, with more than 14,000 reported cases and 511 deaths.
The outbreak in the Eastern DRC is caused by a new offshoot of the virus called clade 1b.
In the past month, cases of this new clade have been reported in countries neighbouring the DRC that have not reported mpox before, and there are also outbreaks of other clades in different parts of the continent.
Yesterday I announced that I am convening an Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations to advise me on whether these outbreaks represent a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
I have also triggered the process for Emergency Use Listing of the two vaccines against mpox, to accelerate vaccine access in the affected countries.
Meeting all of the challenges Africa faces demands an all-of-government, all-of-society approach, as we all know.
And it demands strong institutions, including a strong African Medicines Agency.
I’m pleased to note that the AMA is now operational, which WHO has been proud to support, and remains committed to supporting.
We’re also supporting African Union Member States to strengthen their national regulatory authorities.
In June, Zimbabwe became the sixth AU country to attain maturity level 3, joining Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and the United Republic of Tanzania.
WHO is working in several other ways to support and promote research, licensing, and technology transfer for national and regional production of essential health products across Africa.
For instance, the WHO mRNA technology transfer programme supports the development and transfer of versatile technology to countries in Africa and around the world.
As you know the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub is in Cape Town, South Africa.
We’ve also trained over 9,000 people in quality assurance for manufacturing medicines, vaccines, and other health products.
And we’re working with UNICEF and other partners to strengthen supply chain resilience and performance through tracking and other technologies.
Strategic procurement efforts include optimizing supply chain performance and addressing procurement, trade mechanisms, and quality assurance.
This is especially important to address medicine shortages and stockouts, which were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shortages can lead to substandard and falsified medicines in supply chains, as you know.
WHO is supporting the development of the African Pooled Procurement Mechanism to enhance procurement practices regionally, securing the quality of medical products and reducing the risk of substandard or falsified products.
We encourage you to participate in the WHO portal for sharing information to improve visibility and develop long-term solutions, to reduce potentially negative public health impacts.
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We also understand the challenges of access to controlled medicines, where international controls are needed to avoid illicit and dangerous use.
Every year, at least 40,000 of our brothers and sisters in Africa die from psychoactive drug use and related health conditions.
These cause significant health burdens, with Africa particularly vulnerable due to its young and growing population.
WHO conducts scientific evaluations of drugs and recommends control measures to minimize harm while ensuring availability for medical and scientific purposes.
While access to quality medicine is critical for curing people, prevention of diseases and promotion of health is another important aspect.
At the same time, more than 80 percent of people with mental health or substance use disorders in low- and middle-income countries receive no treatment, and this disproportionately affects women and children.
WHO supports countries to prevent the negative health and social consequences of alcohol and drug use by providing evidence-informed recommendations on prevention, treatment, care and harm reduction.
We also focus on ensuring access to controlled medicines for medical and scientific use.
The WHO Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan for 2013 to 2030 provides a blueprint for action on mental health promotion, prevention and treatment that countries can adapt to their specific context.
And the Global Alcohol Action Plan for 2022 to 2030 outlines action-oriented objectives to reduce the burden due to the harmful use of alcohol.
WHO is committed to supporting all countries to implement these action plans to prevent the harms caused by psychoactive drugs and alcohol, to provide treatment for mental health disorders, and to respect human rights.
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Finally, I welcome your focus on sustaining the AIDS response and strengthening health systems.
While we have made progress, including in Africa, globally, we are not on track to meet the 2025 and 2030 targets on HIV, sexual and reproductive health, tuberculosis, and immunization – but we’re glad to see progress in Africa.
In sub-Saharan Africa, treatment coverage continues to be lower among men and key populations, including children.
New data from UNAIDS also shows that at least half of all people from key populations are not reached by prevention services.
We will see increasing numbers of people living with HIV by 2030 if we only maintain our current level of work and do not increase it.
The reasons we are failing are complex. COVID-19 had an impact, but progress had started to stagnate even before the pandemic.
We still face many familiar hurdles, including insufficient political commitment and funding, high costs for some essential commodities including treatment, and stigmatization, discrimination and criminalization of key populations.
We must follow the science and focus stretched resources where they are most needed - addressing the structural and social barriers as well as thinking carefully about service design.
While we are moving slowly towards disease control, we are still a long way off from eliminating HIV transmission or from ending AIDS.
Ending AIDS as a public health threat, and sustaining the gains made to date is still possible.
And we must continue to help countries understand that the cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of acting now.
I thank you for the opportunity to share some examples of WHO's work on the continent today.
I commend the African Union’s leadership for supporting health and cultivating wellness in your long-term development strategies.
I thank you.