Your Excellency, Ms Sahle-Work Zewde, President of Ethiopia,
Mr Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the General Assembly,
Mr Liu Zhenmin, Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs,
Your Excellency Mr Chin Young,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
First of all I would like to say Happy United Nations Public Service Day.
Since its launch in 2003, this day has marked a celebration of public service.
It acknowledges the incredible role and value of public service and applauds public sector workers globally.
Although we cannot meet in person this year, I thank our co-hosts the Republic of Korea and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs for facilitating this virtual celebration.
As an alumnus of my own country’s public service, and now as an international public servant, I have worked alongside countless individuals who have devoted their lives to improving the availability and quality of public services and my President being one.
This year, as the world battles the COVID-19 pandemic, we have all become acutely aware of the capacity and resilience of public servants, especially the millions of essential workers who keep systems and services functioning.
In the last few months we have seen an outpouring of gratitude for the service and sacrifice of health and social care workers.
Public service workers are being celebrated in capitals, cities and towns across the world.
It is right to applaud, acknowledge and celebrate.
But I would also like to ask how we are acting upon information. What is it that we are doing for others?
COVID-19 is not going away. To the contrary, the pandemic is growing. The number of cases and deaths continues to rise.
Last month, leaders from all over the world came together to launch the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, to hasten the development, production and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.
The true measure of success will not only be how fast we can develop safe and effective tools – it will be how equally we can distribute them.
It is public service workers in health and social care who are at the frontline of this response, and are among those most in need of these tools.
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Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
It is said that we invest in what we value. The COVID-19 pandemic has refocused our attention on several points:
First, the value of resilient health systems that can withstand adversity;
Second, the importance of solidarity and equity; protecting others while protecting ourselves;
And third, the importance of investing in the health workforce, who care for us throughout our lives, in every corner of the world.
Investing in health workers is not a cost. It is an investment. It is a political and moral commitment to allocate the necessary resources in health workers as the foundation of a safer, more equitable world.
Health workers have a right to ‘decent work’ as articulated in the UN-approved framework of the International Labour Organization.
They have a right to fair and reliable salaries and incentives. And in this moment of COVID-19 they have the unquestionable right to health and safety in their workplace, including the personal protective equipment they need to do their jobs safely.
Too many health workers experience mental health challenges from the stress of responding to the pandemic.
Too many health workers have contracted COVID-19 while in the service of others. Too many health workers have lost their lives.
We must also invest in capacity – in the education and training that is necessary to deal with the current emergency, and to build the future health workforce that is fit-for-purpose with the competencies to deliver quality care and Health For All.
We must use innovative methods to build this capacity.
WHO is currently working to establish the WHO Academy as a state-of-the-art learning platform to meet these needs.
And last month, we launched a WHO Academy mobile phone application for health workers to guide them in the COVID-19 response.
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Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
We have a lot of work to do.
Enhanced capacity in public services will also create thousands of jobs at a time of historic levels of unemployment. It can also address unpaid social care in homes and communities, which is disproportionately provided by women.
At the system-wide level, we need to accelerate additional recruitment, redeploy workers within and across sectors, and activate partnerships for public purpose with the private sector and civil society.
We need to ensure that health workers are protected from stigma, harassment and attacks by providing physical security and safe places to stay between shifts, as needed.
We must reinforce the facts and evidence about COVID-19 so that the public continue to understand and value the dedicated and selfless public service.
Our policy and regulatory environments must enable, support and protect health workers to deliver safe care.
We need to repurpose industry to provide the essential equipment and supplies to keep public servants safe.
And we must ask that governments, the private sector and international financing partners award a high level of priority to health and, within that, to the public sector health workforce, without whom there can be no care, no response, no recovery.
This is not just about survival. It is about building back better.
With stronger health systems, more qualified jobs for workers in health and social care - including for women and young people - and stronger, healthier populations that can resist and bounce back from epidemics.
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Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
It is right that we honour public servants today.
It is also right that we commit to action.
We must protect the rights, roles and responsibilities of all health workers and public servants if they are to achieve their full potential in managing the pandemic, building back better and advancing public policy and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Thank you for your support, your commitment and your solidarity.
I ask that you translate that into concrete action that empowers and enables health workers as the foundation of the healthier, safer, fairer world we all want.
I thank you.