Your Excellency the Right Honourable Helen Clark,
Your Excellency Kersti Kaljulaid,
Your Excellency Austin Demby,
Dear colleagues and friends,
Let me start with a few questions.
Where were you born? What is your gender? What resources do you have access to?
The answers to these questions played a large role in determining your path in life, and they play a large role in every child's ability to survive and thrive.
For millions of children, the conditions in which they are born and raised put them on the road to a life with a significantly higher risk of disease and a significantly lower life expectancy than children born in more privileged circumstances.
The United Nation Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health is our guide for changing that story.
Of course, together, we have made some gains in preventing the death of women, children and adolescents.
But we know that this progress depends largely on geography, gender, race and economics.
We still have a huge mountain to climb in low- and middle-income populations and regions, where millions of children die every year, largely of preventable diseases.
The hardest to reach are those who are also facing compounding crises such as, conflict, famine and other humanitarian crises.
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And of course, the COVID-19 pandemic had many negative consequences for health, education, social protection and economic systems. Women, children and adolescents were hit the hardest.
Although many health systems are now recovering from pandemic-related disruptions, we continue to see declines in rates of routine immunization in children, and mental health disorders, especially in adolescents.
Meanwhile, prolonged conflicts have forcibly displaced more people than at any time since the Second World War.
Half of the displaced are children.
And across the world, core human rights, including the access to sexual and reproductive health, remain largely out of reach for women and girls.
WHO's position is clear: abortion care is healthcare and health care is a human right.
Now, at a time where budgets are constricting and rights are retracting, we need increased investment in primary health care and girls' education;
Enforcement of human rights;
And a commitment to prioritizing the health of women, children and adolescents everywhere - and especially for the most vulnerable.
I thank you.
