Director-General,
Regional Director,
Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It’s an honour to present the report of the Twenty-eighth Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe.
Since the ex officio Chairperson, Dr Pejnović Franelić, was not able not complete her term of office, I was asked as elected Vice-Chair to act as Chairperson in accordance with Rule 12 of the Rules of Procedure. I thank my fellow members of the Standing Committee for their trust and support in fulfilling this task.
Unfortunately, because of the continued pandemic situation, this Standing Committee could not meet one single time in person. Nevertheless, members felt even more privileged to serve WHO in these extraordinary and challenging times. They fulfilled their duties with the highest commitment. I would like to thank them for that.
I would also like to thank and commend the Regional Director for the close involvement of the Standing Committee in the strategic reflections on various issues and for the proactive and transparent way in which he has systematically kept us abreast of any important developments and plans.
At every session, an update was provided on the COVID-19 pandemic in the WHO European Region, together with a detailed overview of actions undertaken by the WHO Regional Office for Europe on the response to the pandemic, and also on other activities to implement the European Programme of Work.
In between virtual meetings, the Secretariat also regularly consulted members by email on specific questions to ensure continuity in governance.
This constructive interaction helped to make good progress in various domains. It also resulted in specific initiatives, such as the joint statement on the pandemic that members issued at the end of their meeting in March; and the joint regional statement that was delivered at the Executive Board meeting in January on the topic of sustainable financing, based on discussion of the draft Programme budget 2022–2023 at the special open SCRC session in early January.
As you can see from the report, the Standing Committee was closely engaged in the design and development of an attractive and strategic agenda for the 71st session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe.
Members followed the work of the Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development. Its Chair, Professor Monti, provided an update at our meeting in May. Since it will be important to further analyse the recommendations made by this Commission and translate them into operational actions, the Standing Committee recommends that the Regional Committee agree to establish a working group for that purpose.
SCRC members also contributed significantly to discussions within the various subgroups under the leadership of their respective chairpersons, whom I would like to thank wholeheartedly.
The subgroup on WHO/Europe’s work at country level, led by Mr Tom Auwers from Belgium, guided the Regional Office’s work on finding an agile operating model for country support. The subgroup was closely involved in consultations on the country presence review. The results of this exercise will be presented during the Regional Committee’s plenary session. The subgroup recommends continuing this review process after RC71, and translating it into a strategic regional position paper for adoption at RC72.
The subgroup on governance, chaired by Ms Anna Wechsberg from the UK, reviewed the process for nominations and elections for membership of WHO governing bodies. At the request of Member States, it discussed how to make this process more inclusive, transparent and predictable. It revised the procedure applied by the SCRC to assess candidates and converted it into a more open evaluation that would give more prominence to the profile of the country and to the principle of inclusivity. This procedure was tested immediately by the SCRC for the evaluation of the current nominations. Candidate countries were immediately informed about the outcome to improve transparency. The subgroup also recommends that after RC71 a new consultative process be tested in which Member States would be invited to share their interest in future membership of governing bodies before the new call for nominations is launched.
In the subgroup that I had the privilege to chair, possible ways of making WHO/Europe’s financing more flexible and sustainable were explored. We reviewed a detailed funding analysis and looked at possible options to overcome the challenges, also inspired by and aligned with the ongoing deliberations at global level. Based on this, subgroup members took the initiative to draft a resolution on sustainable financing that is now submitted for consideration by the Regional Committee. The subgroup also acted as a sounding board for the development of a new resource mobilization strategy and investment case.
Finally, I would like to thank Mr Björn Kümmel from Germany who in the past year acted as the link between the European members of the Executive Board and the SCRC, in order to ensure coordination and alignment with WHO’s global policies and decisions. This was particularly important in the context of the programme budget for the next biennium and the open-ended working groups that were established by the Executive Board on sustainable financing and preparedness and response.
I hereby certify that the report that you have received gives an accurate account of the Twenty eighth Standing Committee.
I thank you for your attention and for the trust invested in us!