Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, welcome once again, and thank you for your continued commitment to this historic and vitally important process.
It's now almost three years since WHO received the first report of the disease we now know as COVID-19.
The pandemic is not over, but we are certainly in a much better position than we were one year ago, when the World Health Assembly resolved that our collective suffering must not be in vain;
That the lessons of the pandemic must not go unlearned;
That as Member States, you would make the world safer for your children and grandchildren, and for generations to come.
In the face of scepticism and doubt, you have worked with consensus, transparency, and a broad engagement of stakeholders to make remarkable progress in a short time.
The conceptual zero draft that your Bureau has developed, is a true reflection of the aspirations for a different paradigm for strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.
As you move to a new phase of this process, I urge you to maintain momentum.
You are working to a tight deadline to deliver on both the accord and the amendments to the International Health Regulations, led by the IHR Working Group.
Both are essential for strengthening the global health security architecture.
These two process are not in competition; it is not a case of either/or. They are mutually reinforcing processes to help keep the world safer against the threats of the future.
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There are now only 18 months until the 77th World Health Assembly in May 2024, which will consider the outcome of your efforts.
18 months may seem a long time, but it is not. Negotiations rarely move as fast as we would like them to.
To ensure the continuity of our full and coordinated support during this critical time, I have asked Dr Jaouad Mahjour to continue as Head of the Secretariat team for the INB and the IHR amendments processes.
The team he established to support your work has made me proud with their delivery and efficiency.
Time is short, and there is much work to do. So in that spirit, I will let you get on with it.
Thank you all once again for your commitment and your hard work so far to make the world safer for generations to come.
I thank you.
