Your Excellency Erwin Ruddel, Chairman of the Committee on Health,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
Guten morgen!
First of all, I would like to thank you as members of the Committee on Health of the Bundestag, for your leadership throughout the pandemic.
I would also like to thank Germany for the support it has shown for WHO, especially during what has been a challenging year for all of us.
I especially appreciate the leadership of Chancellor Merkel, both nationally and globally. I was very encouraged by her recent announcement that Germany will invest 4 billion euros by 2026 in strengthening its public health capacities.
This is a good example for many countries, and truly visionary. Strong national public health capacities are essential for protecting health at home and abroad.
And I very much appreciate President Steinmeier’s leadership, and the support he expressed at the World Health Summit yesterday for WHO and the European Union for the ACT Accelerator.
When I met a delegation from the Bundestag’s Global Health Sub-Committee in Geneva last year, the world was a different place.
We have all had many hard lessons about this pandemic since then.
Our task now is to put those into action.
The world looks to Germany as a leader in global health.
We are committed to strengthening our engagement with the Bundestag and with all parliaments, which play a critical role in moving the global health agenda forward.
You have the responsibility and authority to keep governments accountable for the commitments they make.
This is now more important than ever.
We appreciate the concrete proposals that Germany and the other members of the European Union have made for strengthening WHO’s mandate, normative functions, governance, and financing.
We also support Germany’s call for strengthening the International Health Regulations.
Abd we’re very grateful for the leadership of Professor Lothar Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute, as Chair of the IHR Review Committee.
WHO’s normative role is critical as countries work towards strengthening their health systems and preparedness and response capacities.
As you know, we have recently established the Office of the Chief Scientist, the Division of Data and Delivery for Impact, the Division of Emergency Preparedness and the WHO Academy.
Throughout this pandemic, they have been delivering technical guidance and technical support to countries.
I would also like to acknowledge the EU, and Germany in particular, for supporting WHO with more flexible and predictable funding. We hope this will be an example for the world.
As we work to strengthen our resourcing efforts, it is clear that we must be innovative, and not constrained by traditional approaches.
While recognizing that strong, resilient health systems are the backbone of global health security, it is also clear that health security is not a job for the health sector alone.
Just as the pandemic has impacted every sector of our economies, so it stands to reason that every sector should also join in the effort to strengthen global health security.
That is why a whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach to sustainable global preparedness is so important.
In this spirit, we have worked with the European Union to create the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator to speed up the development and equitable to access to therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines.
We have also worked with Germany and other partners to put in place the multisectoral Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All to help countries accelerate progress on the health-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.
We must work not just across sectors but across borders.
The pandemic has demonstrated that highly infectious pathogens cannot be contained by any single sovereign state.
Unlike weapons, pathogens cannot be contained with sanctions.
We can only confront them by working together in solidarity, and with a One Health approach that addresses the links between human, animal and planetary health.
The pandemic has demonstrated that global health security depends on engagement, not estrangement.
A system of robust peer review and reinforced mutual accountability is much more likely to be successful for surveillance, preparedness and response.
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Honorable members of Parliament,
As you know, both the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response and the IHR Review Committee have started their work.
We look forward to their findings and recommendations. We also look forward to your inputs on these processes.
The pandemic is a wake-up call for all of us. We must all look in the mirror. This will not be our last global health emergency.
As you know, after SARS, after H1N1 and after the West African Ebola outbreak, there were numerous reviews, reports, recommendations and reforms.
Some were implemented; some went unheeded.
Once the urgency of the crisis passed, so did the urgency of addressing the vulnerabilities that allowed it to happen.
None of us want to be having this same conversation after the next crisis.
We must work to take things forward in an inclusive, comprehensive and sustained manner. Parliaments must be central to that discussion.
We have a long-term collaboration with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and we are also keen to strengthen our collaboration with European parliamentary platforms, including the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
WHO is keen to create a mechanism to facilitate a structured dialogue with Parliaments, a “Group of Friends of WHO” within national Parliaments and parliamentary platforms.
We are grateful for your support and solidarity.
I thank you. Vielen dank.