Dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, and a very warm welcome to all of you.
It's truly a privilege to welcome you all to headquarters, and to this new extension to our home - your home.
And it's a privilege to welcome colleagues from so many parts of the WHO family:
Regional Directors, Executive Directors, DPMs, country representatives, representatives of the staff association, and at my request, representatives of the Association of Former WHO Staff Members.
Former staff remain part of the WHO family and continue to support our Organization.
Some are helping us to fill urgent short-term vacancies, and others are taking part as mentors to our serving staff in the mentoring programme.
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The last time we met face to face was in Nairobi, four years ago.
How the world has changed since then.
Our world has endured the most severe health crisis in a century, and our organization has been in the eye of the storm.
We have been tested like never before.
And like never before, together we have shown why the world needs a strong WHO.
I do not need to tell you how challenging and stressful these past three years have been. COVID-19 has taken its toll on all of us.
So to all of you, and to all the staff in our country and regional offices, I say thank you.
Thank you for everything you have done to protect the health of the people we serve;
Thank you for the long hours and the hard work, under intense pressure and with limited resources.
And thank you for embodying WHO's values: service, professionalism, integrity, collaboration and compassion.
I know there has been a significant personal cost for many of you, both physically and mentally, for your staff, and for your families and communities.
We are not immune to the pandemic just because we work for WHO.
The pandemic has put us all to the test.
It has also been a test for our transformation, demonstrating what is working, and what needs more attention.
When we met in Nairobi four years ago, we were still at the beginning of our transformation journey.
We have come a long way since then, and I will say more in tomorrow morning's session about the progress we have made and the achievements of which we should be proud.
The pandemic has presented us with unprecedented challenges. But it also gives us an unprecedented opportunity.
The world has seen that when health is at risk, everything is at risk.
The pandemic has proven that health is not just central to development, it's also fundamental to economies and societies, national security and political stability.
There is now unprecedented attention on health, and especially on the need for enhanced health security.
We therefore have a unique opportunity to support countries to make significant changes, and significant investments, in health.
Even before the pandemic, the world was off track to reach the "triple billion" targets and the health-related targets in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Now we are further behind. Countries are progressing at less than one-quarter the pace needed to reach the SDG targets by 2030.
But the pandemic has only demonstrated why the SDGs are so important, and why we must pursue them with even more determination, innovation and collaboration.
At the World Health Assembly in May, I outlined five priorities for the next five years, as we work together to drive progress towards the "triple billion" targets and the SDGs:
Promoting health;
Providing health;
Protecting health;
Powering health;
And performing for health.
The five Ps.
It's important to underline that these "five Ps" do not replace the 13th General Programme of Work or the "triple billion" targets.
They are more about how together we will reach those targets.
The first three are, in fact, aligned with the "triple billion" targets, and the other two are enablers to accelerate progress towards them.
I hope you are familiar with them, and we will discuss them in greater detail tomorrow, but allow me to discuss each one briefly.
First, promoting health.
Realising our vision for the highest attainable standard of health starts not in the clinic or the hospital, but in homes, schools, streets, workplaces, supermarkets and cities.
By and large, the world's health systems do not deliver health care. They deliver sick care.
Much of the work that Ministries of Health do is dealing with the consequences of unhealthy diets, unsafe water and sanitation, polluted environments, dangerous roads and workplaces, inadequate health literacy, and the aggressive marketing of products that harm health.
That's why we are calling on all Member States to make an urgent paradigm shift towards promoting health and well-being and preventing disease, by addressing its root causes and creating the conditions for health to thrive.
Making this shift means that health can no longer be just the business of the health ministry or the health sector, but of the whole of government, and the whole of society.
Health must be a primary consideration in urban planning, tax policy, transport, education policy, commerce, trade, finance, infrastructure and so on.
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The second priority is providing health, by radically reorienting health systems towards primary health care as the foundation of universal health coverage.
More than 90% of essential health services can be delivered through primary health care, including many services to promote health, prevent disease, and avoid or delay the need for more costly secondary and tertiary care.
As the "eyes and ears" of the health system, primary health care also plays a vital role in detecting outbreaks at their earliest stages.
The essence of universal health coverage is equity.
As we support countries to expand access to services and increase financial protection, we must ensure that all people benefit from these improvements.
You have all received the draft policy and strategy on health equity, gender equality and human rights.
I ask you all to take the time to provide your input.
Supporting our Member States to build health systems that are equitable, gender-responsive and human rights based is a priority for us.
After all, it's not universal health coverage if it's not universal.
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The third priority is protecting health, by strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness, response and resilience.
As you know, there have been multiple reviews of the global response to the pandemic, with more than 300 recommendations.
At the request of our Member States, WHO has made 10 key proposals for strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness, response and resilience.
The proposals include actions for stronger governance, stronger financing, stronger systems and tools, and a stronger WHO, under the umbrella of a new pandemic accord, which Member States are now negotiating, as you know.
Several parts of that architecture are already being constructed:
Stronger financing through the newly-established Pandemic Fund;
Stronger global surveillance through the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence;
Stronger accountability through the Universal Health and Preparedness Review, which is now being piloted in four countries;
Stronger countermeasures, building on the ACT Accelerator and PIP Framework;
And a stronger WHO, thanks to the historic commitment by Member States at this year's World Health Assembly to make our financing substantially more predictable, flexible and sustainable.
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The fourth priority is powering health, by harnessing science, research, innovation, data, digital technologies and partnership.
Advances in science and research are constantly pushing back the boundaries of the unknown and the impossible, increasing our understanding, and opening new possibilities.
Innovations in health products and service delivery give us hope of overcoming challenges that once seemed insurmountable.
Digital technologies offer huge potential for identifying who is being left behind, and delivering health services in new ways, to more people, especially in hard-to-reach areas.
To pick up the pace towards the "triple billion" targets and the Sustainable Development Goals, we must pick up the pace and scale at which science, research, innovations and digital technologies are adopted and implemented.
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Finally, the fifth priority is performing for health, by building a stronger, more agile WHO that better supports countries and partners to accelerate progress towards the SDGs, and is reinforced to play its leading role.
For five years we have been working to become that organization through the transformation, with a new strategy, new processes, a new operating model, a new approach to partnerships and financing, a renewed commitment to building a motivated and fit-for-purpose workforce, and a new culture based on shared values.
Of course, we still have a long road to travel. But our Member States have recognized that they cannot afford a WHO that lacks the resources it needs to keep the world safe.
Their commitment to increase assessed contributions by 50% over the next decade will transform our ability to deliver results where it matters most - in the lives of the people we all serve.
Of course, our Member States rightly expect value for the resources with which they entrust us, especially in the current economic environment.
We therefore have much more work to do to deliver the results, the efficiency, the accountability, and the transparency that we all expect.
And we must continue working to make our Organization one with zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment, and zero tolerance for inaction against it.
Even before the pandemic, we had already made significant improvements in effectiveness and efficiency as part of our transformation.
I am committed to continuing that journey, and to making WHO even more effective and efficient.
In particular, our focus in the coming years is to significantly strengthen our country offices to support greater country capacity and greater country ownership - especially by strengthening the national institutions and health workforce of every Member State.
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Our aim is to have at least have one international staff in each country office for each pillar of the GPW, as well as for data, delivery and impact analysis.
We're also committed to fostering greater cross fertilization of staff across regions and across three levels through rotation and mobility.
Today, I'm pleased to announce that 60% of the increase in assessed contributions - more than 100 million U.S. dollars - will be prioritized for country offices in the 2024-25 programme budget.
Member States have expressed, through the Agile Member State Task Group, their desire to see how increases in assessed contributions link to results at the country level, so we have developed an approach to demonstrate results through delivery stocktakes.
We will also work to ensure that any positions established or falling vacant in headquarters and the regional offices will be reviewed to ensure minimizing the gaps of such expertise at country level.
Aligning the operating model across the organization was a vital first step.
This must now be translated into coordinated and policy-driven workforce planning, to ensure that the right capacities are in the right places to deliver the highest impact in countries.
To achieve this, the Regional Directors and I have decided to jointly develop and implement three-level workforce plans as part of the planning for the 2024-25 programme budget.
We have started with a pilot between headquarters and AFRO in the area of communicable diseases, the results of which will inform the roll-out across the Organization.
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Dear colleagues, as I hope you know, 2023 will mark WHO's 75th anniversary.
This milestone in our history provides a unique opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the last 75 years, and look ahead to our future.
This anniversary belongs to all of us - to every major and country office, and I want it to be celebrated by all of us.
Next year is our opportunity to tell our stories to our partners and to the people we serve.
In the New Year you will receive a toolkit to help you design a localized campaign aligned with the rest of the organization.
But I also encourage you to come up with your own innovative ideas that engage the public in celebrating WHO's achievements, raising its profile and shaping its future.
Thank you all for your continued commitment to our shared mission to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable.
As always, I am fiercely proud of you, and proud to be WHO.
I thank you.
