Dr Tedros WHO Closing Speech at WHA70
- As delivered by Dr Tedros
May 23, 2017–70th World Health Assembly — Geneva, Switzerland
Thank you Madame President, Honorable Ministers, Madame Director-General, Heads of Delegations, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good afternoon.
We all woke up this morning to the news that yet another senseless and ruthless terrorist attack happened in Manchester. I condemn it in the strongest terms possible. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the people of the United Kingdom.
I’ll come back to myself.
I’m actually often asked what I honestly think of path that my life has taken. When I was 7 years old my younger brother died from one the many child killers in Africa. It could easily have been me. It was just pure like that I survived. Pure luck. I wouldn’t have this chance actually to stand in front of you. And yet I stand before you today as a candidate for the Director-General of the World Health Organization.
Coming from this background, I know survival hood to adulthood cannot be taken for granted, and I refuse to accept that people can die because they are poor.
I have dedicated my life to improving health. To reducing inequalities. To helping people everywhere lead more productive lives. That commitment has driven me throughout my life and career. And it’s what brings me before you today. It is that commitment with which today I seek to lead the World Health Organization, and serve its noble mandate.
And I make the following five promises:
Number One: I will work tirelessly to fulfill WHO’s promise of Universal Health Coverage.
Number Two: I will ensure robust responses for the health emergencies to come.
Number Three: I will strengthen the frontlines of health and ensure country ownership.
Number Four: I will transform WHO into a world class workforce.
Number Five: I will place accountability, transparency and continuous improvement at the heart of WHO‘s culture.
Last December I met a medical student in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He suffered from kidney failure and was receiving dialysis 3 times per week. I asked him how much he was paying for it. He said he didn’t know. He said the government covers it. Without it he would be dead. His treatment should have made him miserable. But, he was smiling and full of hope. He told me when he completes his medical training he will work to help others.
Because of his access to health, this young man is alive. He will thrive and give back to his community. His story touched me very deeply.
Universal Health Coverage represents our most basic common values and aspirations, as you can see from this young man. It’s about delivering health and hope to our people. And investing in the prosperity of future generations.
That’s why I always say all roads should lead to Universal Health Coverage. Universal Health Coverage should be the center of gravity in our activities. Universal Health Coverage means as you know it — quality diagnosis and care, ensuring access to quality drugs and addressing the financial barriers to health.
Universal Health Coverage is a matter of political commitment and we have to ensure political commitment if we are going to achieve it.
Many countries have identified solutions that fit their own contexts. Using public facilities, or private or a mix. Financing programs through tax revenues or insurance or a mix of it, or other options.
What’s important is the goal — achieving Universal Health Coverage. The means are many. This is my first commitment you. I will not rest until we have made good on our promise of Universal Health Coverage.
Ensuring robust responses for the health emergencies to come is my second commitment. Last week I visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was able to witness first-hand the extraordinary leadership of Minister Oly Kalenga of DRC. The countries response to the Ebola outbreak was much faster than we have ever seen in the past.
Yet many challenges remain. We must go further and implement the emergency reform with a sense of urgency. We must also focus more and strengthen country capacity on the frontlines.
I have done this before in my country. We need resilient capacity for preventing, detecting and responding to health emergencies, in countries. Without this we will always be one step behind in our response. And that is simply unacceptable.
Without this I think we cannot make a difference.
Strengthening the frontlines of health and country ownership is my third commitment. Strengthening the frontline of health means empowering countries working towards their own priorities. Building strong and resilient health systems with focus on primary health care and community engagement. Addressing health workforce. Increasing health financing. Improving data and information systems, using data for decision making. Transferring the skills and knowledge to our communities so they can produce their own health. A focus on health promotion and disease prevention.
Health as a product that can be produced by the individual by himself or herself. I know what it takes to strengthen the frontlines of health and to innovate around the constraints.
In Ethiopia I designed and implemented a comprehensive health system reform. In six years we built a primary healthcare system with more than 16,000 health posts, 300 health centers; deployed more than 40,000 health extension workers. And all the required systems were installed. It was a massive effort. Delivering massive results. Meeting all MDGs. High speed, big volume and good quality was our motto. We translated our reform into impact.
Let’s step back now for a moment to consider the major trends and the challenges of the future.
Mental health and the stigma continue to afflict communities. Non-Communicable diseases are now the largest cause of global diseases. Just look on the streets of our cities. Obesity, smoking, poor diets, sedentary lifestyles. It’s a perfect storm. A storm but a silent killer, in the making. Affecting all regions and all income levels. It’s costing us dearly today. It will only worsen if we don’t shift the trajectory. We must reverse the trajectory.
We have made promising progress on HIV, TB, Malaria, neglected tropical and other communicable diseases. But they persist as a major cause of disease and suffering, still. We must not be complacent. The fighting is not over. It’s not.
We have established a number of important goals: We must complete the task of polio eradication. We should end preventable diseases of newborns and children and ensure giving birth is a celebration for every mother. We must focus on women, children and adolescents, and ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, and tackle gender based violence.
We must accelerate the ratification and enforcement of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. We’re very slow on that. Very few countries have ratified it. We must confront and address the commercial determinants of health. Including unhealthy foods, drinks, tobacco and alcohol.
WHO’s mandate is about health but we must recognize and respond to major trends that will impact the health landscape more broadly including climate change, ongoing regional conflicts and terrorism — like what I said earlier. And the migrant crisis. Growing economic disparity, and social determinants of health and above all the geopolitical shift with profound dangerous changes that everybody is witnessing.
This is the wisdom inherent in the Sustainable Development Goals. What we call the 5 pieces. We must have political leadership and innovative responses to the changing landscape by adopting new models and smarter approaches.
Antimicrobial resistance is a perfect example of the complex multi-sectoral multi-stakeholder challenges we will increasingly face in the future. Requiring a more agile, strategic, innovative and collaborative leadership.
WHO must rise to the challenge by building effective partnerships, like One Health.
I believe WHO’s greatest asset is its staff. But in the context of the complex challenges we’re facing, WHO must evolve to have a world class workforce and this is my fourth commitment. We must start by first invigorating the mindset of our staff. I will foster the same `can do’ and `will do’ culture that I successfully implemented or brought to previous institutions. United by our shared vision and goals, WHO should be the employer of choice for top notch professionals that will bring science, innovation and results.
In particular our strategy must improve WHO’s geographic and gender representation, especially in leadership positons. There are skilled professionals from all over the world who understand and represent the complex geographic, cultural, political, social, and gender dimensions that our work must address.
My final commitment is that I will place accountability, transparency and continuous improvement at the heart of WHO’s culture. WHO must evolve to be more transparent, responsive, effectively managed, and adequately resourced. To ensure sufficient resources we must expand donor base, communicate more effectively the return on investment.
But above all we must earn confidence through our results. We must also harmonize our work and shared vision across WHO with clear priorities and regular monitoring of progress. When I was chairing The Global Fund that is what I did. I installed an independent panel to show us the challenges we were facing, and we changed The Global Fund based on the independent panel’s recommendations.
If I am elected DG, I will submit myself and WHO to the same level of rigorous independent review.
Distinguished colleagues, I want to lead WHO as DG because I have seen firsthand the power of health to lift individuals and communities from despair to hope. I believe WHO is still relevant.
My distinguished colleagues, as you have heard me say before, while WHO has never had a Director General from Africa, no one should elect me because I am from Africa.
But if you agree, there is a real value in electing a leader who has worked in one of the toughest environments and transformed the health system, who can bring a fresh perspective, and an angle which the world has never seen before.
With experience in political leadership, with experience in technical proficiency and also as a convener who has built partnerships, I will work with you, and I am really committed; I will listen to you. I was one of you and in your shoes and I can understand you better.
And I will never forget this is fundamentally about people. Whether they live in the developed world or developing nations, where there are too many lives that are cut short like that of my brothers and many others
I promise you I will get up every day determined to make a difference.
Thank you so much. And I am ready to serve. (END)
You can read more about Dr. Tedros and his vision for a healthy world as #ThePeoplesDG @WHO on his website: www.drtedros.com/ — and follow along with his activities on social media at Facebook.com/DrTedros.Official and on Twitter at @DrTedros.
