Your Excellency Ambassador Sabri Bachtobji,
Your Excellency Ambassador Henri Monceau,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
It is a pleasure to welcome you all today. Bonjour à tous.
My thanks to Your Excellency Ambassador Bachtobji and to Your Excellency Ambassador Monceau for organizing this meeting and for your support in this critical discussion.
The Organization of la Francophonie has been instrumental in promoting multilingualism and cultural diversity, and their collaboration with WHO highlights the importance of international cooperation in our efforts to tackle global health crises.
In November 2022, at the OIF Summit in Djerba, Tunisia, Member States came together in solidarity, to call for equitable access to healthcare services, treatments, and vaccines, and the importance of sustainable regional and local production.
This vision aligns with the objectives of the pandemic agreement currently being negotiated by Member States, which will be considered at the 2024 World Health Assembly.
The COVID-19 pandemic shone a bright light on the inequalities of access to life-saving medicines and health products in low- and middle-income countries.
It also highlighted the importance of increasing the capacity of lower-income countries for the sustainable production of effective, safe and affordable health products, and the need to end the stranglehold of manufacturing concentrated in just a few countries.
Expanding local production, and strengthening local regulatory capacity, are essential for reducing health inequities between and within countries.
This will not only help us prepare for the pandemics of tomorrow, but to treat the diseases of today.
First established in 2021, the WHO-led mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub helps build sustainable manufacturing capacity in low- and middle-income countries.
This will allow countries to rapidly produce mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, and for other high priority diseases including malaria, tuberculosis and cancer.
The Hub now has a network of 15 partner countries around the world, including in OIF Member States Egypt, Senegal, Tunisia, and Vietnam, as the Ambassador said, as well as with observers and associates Argentina, Serbia and Ukraine.
mRNA technology is a powerful new tool, but each country by itself cannot establish and sustain this technology alone.
The network of Francophone countries offers an opportunity to share the benefits of mRNA, with some contributing to research activities, others to the supply chain, while producers can share the vaccines in return.
This kind of global collaborative network empowers its partners to gain know-how and absorb technology, while also directly contributing to technology improvement and expansion of its pipelines, particularly in the Global South.
Our collective efforts can contribute to a healthier future for all.
I thank you.