Maputo — Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has urged the rich countries to demonstrate their solidarity with actions, in order to improve the well-being of the people of developing countries.
Speaking in Geneva, at the opening session of the 76th World Health Assembly, which also marks the 75th anniversary of the creation of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Nyusi proposed forgiving the debt of the least developed countries, and fair, predictable and secure mechanisms to facilitate access to financing.
"The unsustainable indebtedness of some poor countries, often resulting from exogenous factors such as climate change, pandemics, and imposed wars, are one of the main causes of their inability to finance essential services, including health care', argued Nyusi.
He stressed the importance of solidarity with the least developed countries to guide global collaboration on health, and to promote the right of these countries to develop.
Nyusi added that health for all requires a paradigm change in international collaboration for the promotion of health, as well as in disease prevention and control, and the strengthening of health systems and their readiness to face diseases.
He reaffirmed Mozambique's commitment "to continue our strategic partnership with the WHO to attain the welfare of everyone in Mozambique and throughout the world'.
He outlined the experience of Mozambique in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, which had managed to avoid the collapse of the national health system without decreeing any lockdowns. The government had embarked on a highly successful vaccination campaign, in which 96 per cent of all Mozambicans aged 18 and above had been vaccinated against Covid-19.
Nyusi recalled that among the lessons learnt from the pandemic was the importance of health systems being always prepared for any kind of emergency.
"Ensuring domestic and global investments to strengthen the resilience of health systems, the obligation to strengthen mechanisms of international cooperation and coordination for a rapid and efficient response to public health emergencies, are other lessons taught by the pandemic', he added.
"It was clear that for diseases there are no borders', said Nyusi. "At no moment can you say that a country is free of diseases, while there are other countries that continue to have those diseases'.
