Good morning, good afternoon and good evening,
Late on Sunday, tropical storm Daniel hit the eastern coast of Libya, bringing strong winds, heavy rain, the collapse of two dams and devastating floods.
The area affected is home to over 1.5 million people.
The true toll of this disaster is still emerging, but local officials have reported over 5000 deaths and thousands more are still missing. Over 35 thousand are displaced and homeless. This is a calamity of epic proportions.
Even while the death toll is increasing, the health needs of the survivors are becoming more urgent. WHO is working with the Ministry of Health and partners to rush emergency relief to the affected areas.
WHO is releasing 2 million US dollars from our Contingency Fund for Emergencies to support our response.
We are deploying contingency supplies that were already in the country, and 28 metric tonnes of trauma, surgical and emergency supplies are due to arrive tomorrow from our logistics hub in Dubai.
WHO has also activated its network of emergency medical teams.
Eight countries and organizations have offered their assistance and a team from France has already deployed its field hospital in the affected area.
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The floods in Libya are the second devastating disaster in a week to affect North Africa.
The earthquake in Morocco has killed almost 3000 people and injured many thousands.
These numbers will continue to rise in the coming days.
Entire families are buried under the rubble, others are homeless, and some children lost both their parents.
Our information is that most roads have now been cleared, and search and rescue teams have been able to access the majority of affected areas.
The Moroccan government is leading the response. WHO and our UN partners stand ready to scale up our response to provide supplies and technical assistance as needed.
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Last weekend, I had the honour of attending the G20 Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, India.
Representing the world’s largest economies, the G20 plays a critical role in global development, and global health.
I welcome the Leaders’ Declaration, which highlighted a range of critical health issues.
G20 leaders reinforced their commitment to achieving universal health coverage, and to adopting a One Health approach, recognising that the health of people and planet are inseparable.
They also recognised the role of traditional medicine, and welcomed the establishment of the WHO Global Initiative for Digital Health.
Critically, G20 leaders reiterated their commitment to strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness and response, with a central role for WHO.
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Now to next week’s United Nations General Assembly, when leaders from all countries will come together to discuss the most pressing challenges we face as a world.
For the first time, the General Assembly will feature three High-Level Meetings on health issues, demonstrating how important health is to our world – today and for the future.
The first High-Level Meeting, next Wednesday, is on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.
The outcome will be a political declaration that aims at mobilizing political will, and for strengthening the governance, financing and systems for global health security.
The declaration will support the ongoing Member State negotiations on the Pandemic agreement and the amendment of the IHR 2005.
If COVID-19 taught us nothing else, it’s that when health is at risk, everything is at risk.
The pandemic showed that health is essential to development, social and economic prosperity and national security.
It demonstrated the importance of strong leadership and collaboration based on the best science.
And it demonstrated the importance of equity.
The world must learn these lessons, and learn them fast. COVID-19 is still with us and, and the next pandemic is not a question of if, but when.
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The second High-Level Meeting, on Thursday next week, will be on universal health coverage, which all countries have committed to achieving by 2030 in the Sustainable Development Goals.
The previous high-level meeting on universal health coverage, or UHC, was held in 2019, just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted.
Even before COVID-19, progress towards UHC was stagnating. The pandemic set countries even further back in their journey towards UHC, but it also showed why it is so important.
Universal health coverage means that all people in a population have equitable access to the essential health services they need, without facing financial hardship.
The latest data, to be published next week, show that the world is alarmingly off track.
Huge numbers of people still cannot access essential health services, are impoverished by doing so, or both.
WHO is calling on all countries to do three things:
First, to protect and expand investments in health, to reorient their health systems towards a primary health care approach, to promote health, prevent disease, provide the services people need, and empower them to take charge of their own health.
We understand that budgets are squeezed. But investments in primary health care are the most cost effective, because they can help to prevent or delay the need for more costly secondary and tertiary care.
Second, we are calling on countries to take ambitious action to protect the poorest and most vulnerable from catastrophic health costs;
And third, to urgently work towards doubling the health and care workforce, especially at the community level, which is the backbone of every health system.
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The third High-Level Meeting, on Friday next week, is on tuberculosis.
In 2021, TB killed 1.6 million people, or about 4000 a day.
And yet this is a disease that is preventable and curable.
Since the year 2000, global efforts to combat TB have saved more than 74 million lives.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with conflicts and inequities around the world, have reversed years of progress.
WHO is calling on world leaders to commit to concrete targets for the next five years:
First, to reach 90 percent of people with TB prevention and care;
Second, to use the WHO-recommended rapid test as the first method of diagnosis;
Third, to provide social benefits packages to ALL people with TB so they don't endure financial hardship;
And fourth, to license at least one new TB vaccine.
To accomplish these goals, we need to close the funding gaps for TB care, and invest in research and innovation.
At the same time, we need to address the drivers of TB: poverty, malnutrition, diabetes, HIV, tobacco and alcohol use, poor living and working conditions, stigma and discrimination, and more.
These three issues – tuberculosis, universal health coverage and pandemic prevention, preparedness and response – are all closely linked.
In WHO’s 75th year, we are calling on all countries to fulfil the commitment they made when they founded us in 1948: to health as a fundamental human right, and the foundation of peace and security.
Tarik, back to you.