Your Excellency Monica Geingos, First Lady of Namibia,
Excellencies, my sister Roopa, dear colleagues and friends,
Good evening, it's an honour to be here to celebrate our Heroines of Health.
I thank Roopa and your colleagues at Women in Global Health for organising tonight's event, and for your tireless work in advocating for women in the health sector.
We were pleased to welcome your organization into official relations status with WHO earlier this year.
As you know, two-thirds of all health workers globally are women, including 90% of all nurses.
And yet, women hold just 25% of the leadership roles in global health.
We know that health systems function better when women have an equal say in their design and delivery.
Promoting gender equity in health and care systems is a key priority for WHO.
We have been working closely with the Global Health Workforce Network's Gender Equity Hub and other partners to support gender parity in health and care sector leadership.
And at the World Health Assembly this year, the WHO Global Health and Care Worker Compact was adopted by Member States, providing guidance on how to protect health and care workers and safeguard their rights.
The Compact highlights that duty of care is a shared responsibility in every country.
We're also committed to enhancing gender equality at WHO.
Since I started as Director-General five years ago, the proportion of women in leadership roles has increased, but not enough, and not fast enough. We have more work to do.
We're currently working on a new organizational policy and strategy to advance health equity, gender equality, and human rights for health.
And we have also recently adopted a five-year strategy to mainstream gender in our Health Emergencies Programme.
It aims to elevate the position of women in emergency preparedness, response operations and recovery to leverage their talents, perspectives and expertise.
Tonight, we will hear the stories of the women who are receiving the Heroines of Health Awards.
These are extraordinary women who have found ways to provide care in what are often the most challenging circumstances.
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This evening's event is a celebration, as it should be, but in the third year of a pandemic it is against a background of great hardship for most health workers.
Two weeks ago, WHO published a report called Our duty of care: A global call to action to protect the mental health of health and care workers. It makes for sobering reading.
At least a quarter of health and care workers surveyed reported anxiety, depression, and burnout symptoms.
Women, younger workers, and parents of dependent children were found to be at most at risk of psychological distress.
We can only make real progress towards the health-related SDG targets, if all countries protect the people who protect us.
That means investing in the education, training, decent pay, working conditions, leadership roles and respect they deserve.
Let me end by thanking the women receiving the 17 Awards tonight for their exceptional work and dedication. Their feats range from reaching remote communities to pushing for change at a global level.
Building on the lessons of these pandemic years, and learning from the examples of these extraordinary women, we must continue working towards universal health coverage, built on a foundation of primary health care.
Not just tonight, but every day, we honour the contribution of women health workers everywhere.
I thank you.
