Our moderator, Ambassador Marc Bischler,
Your Excellency Ambassador Leslie Norton,
Your Excellency Ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve,
Suzanne Steensen,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
I thank Your Excellencies Ambassadors, and especially my thanks to Suzanne Steensen, Jolanda Profos, and the MOPAN Secretariat.
As you know, this is actually the 6th MOPAN assessment of WHO, beginning from 2002.
For me, it is my second, as the last assessment was in 2017-2018 that took place as I had begun my first term as DG, and which coincided with the development of the 13th General Programme of Work.
So, it was very very helpful, because it was done during a very critical time, when I was asking colleagues for crazy ideas, and I think the assessment by MOPAN contributed a lot to the change agenda we started. Not only the relevant recommendations, but it was very timely as well.
We learned a great deal at the time, which we put into immediate use; for example, by developing the Output Scorecard and reinforcing our results framework in GPW13. So, then we said, thanks MOPAN, and I say again today, thank you MOPAN.
I and the whole Organization value these assessments as organizational learning opportunities that help us operationalize our commitment to continuous improvement.
They also help to document our reform journey, which has been evolving over the past 20 years, and which I expanded and accelerated when I first took office through the Transformation agenda of WHO.
WHO is a complex organization, and it is no small feat to try to capture an understanding of our systems and processes, as well as the mandate of our Member States.
I applaud the ambition of what MOPAN set out to do.
Since that 2017-18 assessment, we have made significant progress on a variety of system and accountability reforms. Thank you to MOPAN and also to our Member States.
These are reflected in the ongoing implementation of the Transformation; scaling up our prevention and response for sexual misconduct, including changing the underlying culture that led to these situations – as you said, culture and mindset are central to this; and, in collaboration with Member States, to implement numerous reforms that are part of the Agile Member States Task Group and the Secretariat Implementation Plan, the SIP.
I think that helped, the Member State mechanisms, to speed up the implementation of the recommendations because the oversight of the Member States actually helped.
These reforms have strengthened our accountability, transparency, country level impact, performance management, programme budget development and implementation, results reporting, internal controls and governance.
It is in this context that Member States agreed to increase the assessed contributions for the first time in decades, as part of an overall push for sustainable financing, along with the Investment Round later this year, based on the Transformation agenda. By the way, over the decades, the highest increase in assessed contributions was 3%. 50% is very historic. I think the assessments and especially follow-ups by the Agile Member State Task Group and the Secretariat Implementation Plan really helped to see progress, but at the same time rewarded by agreeing to the assessed contributions and the Investment Round.
I appreciated the comments you made, Suzanne, at the strategic roundtable at the World Health Assembly in support of the need for sustainable financing.
And of course, hand-in-hand with sustainable financing for the Organization, are commitments from the Secretariat to strengthen governance, accountability, and efficiency.
As I have already mentioned, we continue to make significant progress on that front.
I will highlight some of the key findings of the MOPAN assessment, but with the caveat that it provides a snapshot of the Organization and does not, by definition, cover all of our progress over the past five years.
At the same time, the assessment provides important lessons that we have already incorporated in the new GPW14, as well as in the implementation of some of the reform efforts I mentioned earlier. So, the first 17-18 assessment was helpful for the GPW13 and Transformation, and this assessment also has important lessons for our GPW14. And this was also, again, very timely.
The report makes note of WHO’s swift response, agility, and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, we believe we should continue to build.
The report specifically cites the innovative partnerships that were created in the face of this unprecedented global emergency, including COVAX and the ACT-A facility. Whether it’s the agility, or the swift response, or the partnership, the key is that although the COVID-19 pandemic has helped bring pressure to accelerate this, we believe that we have to institutionalize it. And institutionalizing it will not be difficult because partnership was part of our transformation agenda. And that’s why we created the Civil Society Commission and the WHO Youth Council. And our work with the private sector has also improved significantly.
We are building on these achievements and the lessons learned to bolster the Organization’s pandemic preparedness and response capacity and those of our Member States.
It is in this context that I again congratulate Member States for their landmark work on the IHR amendments and their continuing efforts to negotiate a pandemic instrument.
We are also incorporating Organization-wide lessons from our response to COVID-19 into many ongoing system reforms.
Regarding the prevention and response to sexual misconduct, the assessment findings acknowledge our significant progress over the past two years.
We continue efforts to align with the entire UN system, to invest in preventing and responding to sexual misconduct, and to focus on achieving sustained culture change. The alignment will help us to learn from our sister agencies.
In the area of gender mainstreaming, we thank the MOPAN Secretariat for accepting the 2023 UNSWAP monitoring results that showed WHO’s major improvements over the past three years.
WHO’s organization-wide score increased from 47% in 2021 to 81% in 2023. We recognize that it is a high priority to ensure gender parity in our workforce.
The assessment concludes that: “WHO has strong internal controls, including risk-based due diligence processes, mandatory staff training, an accountability framework, as well as fraud and corruption risk assessment processes”.
It also notes that: “the organisational systems allow for financial transparency and accountability.”
WHO’s results-based budgeting system is rated very strong, and its new transparent Member States portal, with Programme Budget, finance and results reporting digital platforms and dashboards were also well-noted.
Regarding areas for improvement, we appreciate the insights of the report, which generally align with what we have documented internally, and for which progress is underway already.
And while appreciating your kind words about our performance, we believe we should focus on the weakness and on the challenges and continue to make progress.
We continue working to enhance our performance, in particular implementing actions to strengthen country impact as developed by the WRs in the Action for Results Group.
Our commitment to invest at country level is very very strong. And that’s why we have this regular meeting, on a weekly basis with the ARG, and they have scheduled meetings with all WRs – that’s close to 160 country heads. This is helping, because they discuss the challenges they face and propose the solutions to us. It is owned by them and that’s helping. Because they know the problems, they know solutions. And it’s that strength at the country level for WHO that will help us deliver results with countries.
Regarding strengthening the evaluation function of the Organization, the IEOAC and the PBAC have been overseeing efforts in this regard over the past year.
A comparative study of the evaluation function across UN agencies and WHO has been completed, and follow-up work has already started.
As I underlined at the outset, I and the Organization are fully committed to improving accountability and continuous learning.
The management response for the assessment is being finalized and will be sent to the MOPAN Secretariat for publication soon.
In closing, I thank the many colleagues in WHO at HQ, Regional and Country Office levels for their very significant efforts, time, and support given to the assessment team and process.
I hope all our colleagues at all three levels will continue to collaborate with you in the future as well, because your work has been helping us and will continue to help us, and I think from my colleagues you will continue to get the support you need.
Going forward, I am committed to continuing to make use of the insights from this assessment as we work together to build a healthier, safer, and fairer world for all.
As always, we look forward to your questions, engagement and guidance.
I thank you.
