Organizer: Business Council for International Understanding
Your Excellency Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin,
Your Excellency Minister Frank Anthony,
Mr Geoff Martha
Dr Juan Pablo Uribe,
Mr Peter Tichansky,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon, it's an honour to be here. I thank BCIU for the invitation and for organising this very important event.
The political declaration on universal health coverage that countries have approved this morning is a strong statement of their commitment.
On Monday, WHO and the World Bank launched our report card on universal health coverage.
The findings are alarming. 4.5 billion people - more than half of the world's population - are not fully covered by essential health services.
And 2 billion people face financial hardship or are impoverished due to out-of-pocket health spending.
These gaps put lives at risk, but they also put societies, businesses and economies at risk.
While governments play a central role in closing these gaps and realising the promise of UHC, they cannot do it alone.
Around the world, the private sector also plays a key role, from delivering health services, to developing and distributing vaccines and medicines, to providing essential technologies.
In Africa, for example, more than half of outpatient care is provided by the private sector.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a vivid demonstration of the vital role of the private sector, in the rapid development of life-saving vaccines, diagnostics and treatments.
The pandemic also reminded us of the value of health workers, who are the backbone of every health system.
And yet globally, we estimate a projected shortage of ten million health workers by 2030.
The poorest nations have as little as one tenth of the health workers of the richest ones. Even high-income countries struggle with national shortages.
Here too, the private sector has an important role in education, employment and financing.
Private providers of health services, and manufacturers of health products, are major employers.
And because 70% of health and care workers are women, investments in the health sector are investments in gender equality.
WHO is committed to supporting countries with the greatest shortages of health and care workers to close their gaps, and to protect them from international recruitment.
At the World Health Assembly last year, our Member States adopted the Working for Health Action Plan for 2022 to 2030, which outlines priorities for countries to build the workforce capacity they need.
We are also calling on all countries to respect the Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel, and in particular to protect the 55 countries who face the most critical shortages.
Two regions, Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, account for almost three-quarters of the projected shortage of health workers.
The estimated investment needed to expand the education supply in these two regions is less than one half of one percent of their combined GDP.
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As a major provider of health services and health products, private sector investments are essential, especially through partnerships for public purpose.
Increased investment is important, but it's also vital that investments are aligned with national priorities; that they serve to stimulate further investment; and that they are sustainable over the long term.
Dear friends,
The simple truth is that there is no health without health and care workers.
Thank you all for your commitment to protecting health workers, to investing in health workers, and to doing it together.
I thank you.
