Your Excellencies Minister Rafila, Minister Tom and Ambassador Cessouma,
Prof Ihsane Ben Yahya,
UNICEF Executive-Director Catherine Russell,
Dr Juan Pablo Uribe,
Professor Senait Fisseha,
Our moderator Sir David Behan,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Health workers are the lifeblood of our health systems.
Everything we are discussing this week - universal health coverage, global health security, the SDGs - all depend on health workers.
We have a major challenge before us. Globally, we face a projected shortage of ten million health workers by 2030.
This is a substantial improvement on the shortfall of 18 million we anticipated in 2016. But it is still far too many.
In parts of the world - Africa, the Middle East, and Small Island Developing States – progress is stagnating.
The poorest nations have as little as one tenth of the health workers as the richest ones.
In early April, ministers and delegates joined us here in Geneva for the Fifth Global Forum on Human Resources for Health. Many are with us today.
Three key themes informed that meeting and are at the core of my call for action: protect, invest, together.
First, I call on all countries to protect health and care workers from violence and discrimination; to protect their labour rights; and to protect them with decent pay and working conditions.
Second, I call on all countries to invest in the education, employment and career development of health and care workers.
And with women making up the majority of the health and care workforce, we must address entrenched inequalities.
Concerted action by low- and middle-income countries with the greatest shortages could double their health workforce in the next 10 years. Doing so would enable real progress on universal health coverage and emergency preparedness.
Third, we must act together.
Action and investment decisions require political leadership, coordination across the education, employment, gender and finance sectors, as well as engagement with professional associations, labour unions, civil society and the private sector.
Dear Excellencies and colleagues, this Assembly is an opportunity to align our work, agree on actions, and accelerate to achieve the health workforce targets of the SDGs.
There is no better way to honour the legacy of health and care workers who lost their lives to COVID-19.
I thank you.