Your Excellency João Goncalves Lourenço,
Your Excellency Hakainde Hichilema,
Your Excellency Mahmoud Ali Youssouf,
Excellencies Heads of State and Government,
Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya,
Dear colleagues and friends,
First, I would like to thank Africa CDC for organizing this meeting, and I thank all Heads of State and Government for your attention to this critical issue.
Over the past four years, WHO has seen a global resurgence of cholera, especially in Africa, driven partly by climate change and conflict.
In Sudan, WHO is now responding to an especially bad outbreak of cholera, with very high case fatality rates, affecting every region.
WHO started vaccinating last week, but without access, we can’t reach those at risk.
We need a ceasefire to allow our teams to reach the areas they need to reach with vaccines to save lives.
And as you know, Sudan is only one country on our continent currently facing outbreaks of cholera.
So far this year, Africa has reported two-thirds of all cholera cases globally, and 99% of all cholera-related deaths.
Cholera is an old enemy – one the world has been fighting for many years.
WHO, Africa CDC and other partners have been working through the Global Task Force on Cholera Control, a broad partnership of more than 50 institutions.
Through the ICG, we have delivered 230 million doses of oral cholera vaccines to 31 countries, including 96 million doses delivered to 22 countries in just the past two years.
Since 2022 WHO has allocated significant funds from our Contingency Fund for Emergencies to respond to cholera outbreaks around the world.
We have also deployed to 18 countries, and facilitated the deployment of emergency medical teams.
In 2017, countries adopted the Global Cholera Roadmap, a strategy that aims to reduce cholera deaths by 90% and the eliminate the disease in 20 countries by 2030.
What we need now is leadership, alignment, and solidarity.
We need integration between global and regional initiatives, building on existing mechanisms and aligning with national cholera control and elimination plans.
We need to expand local manufacturing of oral cholera vaccines, but we also need to optimize the use of existing supplies through earlier detection and more efficient vaccination campaigns.
We need to put out this fire, but we must also address its source.
Cholera is a symptom of a deeper issue – systemic failures in water, sanitation, health services, governance, and equity.
Although a cholera outbreak is an emergency, its underlying cause is a fundamental development issue.
Increased investments in WASH are therefore needed urgently, from both national budgets and development funding.
At this time of constrained resources, domestic financing is especially important.
So I very much welcome the commitments you are making in today’s call to action to increase domestic financing and scale up investments in WASH;
Along with the other commitments to take multisectoral action, secure critical supplies, and guarantee humanitarian access.
Indeed, all of these commitments are key elements of the Global Cholera Roadmap.
WHO looks forward to working with Africa CDC, through the GTFCC, to support countries to implement the commitments of the roadmap, and realise its goals.
And we stand ready to provide on-the-ground expertise through our country offices, which are in every country in Africa.
Excellencies, once again, my thanks to all of you for the leadership and commitment you are demonstrating today.
I thank you.