Excellencies, Honourable Members of Parliaments,
Secretary General Martin Chungong,
Dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon, and a very warm welcome to each of you.
I thank my friend Martin for his leadership and partnership, as we have worked together to advance the role of parliamentarians in global health.
Together, we have made substantial progress.
WHO has strengthened our approach to parliamentary affairs, working with several regional and global platforms, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
We are working with the IPU in three priority areas: universal health coverage, global health security, and health promotion, with a focus on women, children and adolescents.
In the area of global health security, we convened the African parliamentary high-level conference on strengthening health security preparedness in Accra in 2023, with parliamentarians from over 20 countries.
In 2024, together with the Parliament of Thailand, we convened the Regional Conference for Parliamentarians of the Asia Pacific Region on Global Health Security in Bangkok.
Both conferences aimed to inform and engage parliamentarians in the negotiations of the amendments to the International Health Regulations and the new Pandemic Agreement, which, as you know, the Assembly adopted yesterday.
Last month, in Tashkent, the IPU announced the creation of the Committee on Health, which reaffirms health as being a key IPU priority.
Member States invited to attend the World Health Assembly are now encouraged to include parliamentarians in their national delegations.
Today marks a milestone. With this gathering, we are inaugurating the WHA Global Parliamentary Dialogue, an annual space for parliamentarians to engage directly at the World Health Assembly.
This will now be a standing event every year.
It will serve as a bridge—connecting parliamentarians with WHO, Member States, youth, and civil society.
Your presence sends a powerful message about your commitment to health equity, resilience, and global solidarity, both at home and globally.
It reflects the growing recognition that global health is not only a technical domain, but profoundly political.
This dialogue could not be timelier, as this year’s Assembly convenes at a historical moment in global health.
The historic adoption of the Pandemic Agreement is just the beginning.
Its success will be contingent on its implementation.
Parliaments will be the ones to ratify the Agreement, and to translate global consensus into national legislation.
As you know, there has been a lot of mis- and disinformation about the Pandemic Agreement:
That it will cede sovereignty to WHO, and give us the power to impose mask or vaccine mandates or lockdowns.
That is all completely false. The Agreement says explicitly that it will give WHO no such powers.
It will be implemented in countries in accordance with your own national laws.
We urge you to stand with us and support this historic agreement as a legacy for future generations so that the world will never again face a pandemic so unprepared and divided.
Parliaments are also key to ensuring sustainable financing for global health.
Yesterday, the World Health Assembly also approved the next increase in assessed contributions, a significant step towards putting WHO on a more sustainable financial footing.
Your leadership will now be vital for implementing this commitment in national budgets, and in keeping governments accountable for their commitments to health.
Investing in health, and in WHO, is an investment in a safer and healthier future for all of us.
In addition to your support for global health, we also seek your commitment to investing in health at the national level, through primary health care, preparedness, and health equity—because health security starts with strong health systems.
That is why it matters so much that you are here and why this dialogue must continue, not only in times of crisis but also as part of an ongoing, strategic collaboration.
We are proud of our partnership with the IPU in advancing this vision, and proud to be taking an important step by establishing this Parliamentary Dialogue as an annual platform within the WHA calendar.
I also thank the youth and civil society leaders who have joined us today. Your voices matter, and we need to hear them.
So, thank you everyone, for being here, and for the leadership and commitment you bring to global health.