Honourable Minister Dr Edwin Dikoloti, President of the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly,
Excellencies Ministers, Heads of Delegation, dear colleagues and friends,
We have come to the end of another long but fruitful World Health Assembly.
I'm sure that like me, you are tired and you are looking forward to going home.
I hope that as you go home, you do so with pride and satisfaction at what you have achieved this week.
Your adoption of the Fourteenth General Programme of Work charts a course for global health for the next four years, with a commitment to promote, provide and protect the health of the world's people.
The package of amendments on the International Health Regulations that you adopted is an historic achievement that makes the world a safer place;
And you have agreed on a path forward for the Pandemic Agreement, and I remain confident that you will bring it to conclusion.
In addition, you have adopted decisions and resolutions on many key health issues:
Antimicrobial resistance; climate change and health; infection prevention and control; maternal, newborn and child health; mental health in emergencies; social participation in primary health care; transplantation, and more.
We also launched the WHO Investment Round;
And we celebrated 50 years of the Essential Programme on Immunization;
In 1974, when EPI was launched, fewer than 5% of infants globally were vaccinated.
Today, about 84% of the world's children have been vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis - diseases which were once a death sentence.
Vaccines are the single greatest reason for reductions in child mortality - from 11 million child deaths in 1990 to 4.5 million in 2022.
In addition the Strategic Roundtables gave us the opportunity to launch the WHO investment case; and to discuss key issues including the economics of health for all; artificial intelligence; AMR; and climate change and health.
The year ahead offers several significant opportunities to make substantial progress on all the issues you have discussed this week.
In particular, the high-level meeting on AMR at this year's UN General Assembly is an important opportunity to catalyze much-needed political commitment.
So our work here has ended, but now the work of implementing what we have agreed begins.
This week was the first Health Assembly for the three Regional Directors whom you elected last year, all of whom represented firsts:
The South-East Asia region elected Ms Saima Wazed from Bangladesh - the first time we have had two women as successive regional directors;
The Eastern Mediterranean elected Dr Hanan Balkhy from Saudi Arabia - the first woman appointed to that role;
And the Western Pacific elected Dr Saia Ma'u Piukala from Tonga - the first Pacific islander to hold the role.
I would like to place on record my thanks and admiration for Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh and Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari for their leadership and service to WHO;
And my deep gratitude also to Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab, who retired as Deputy Director-General this year, after leading the Western Pacific through a very difficult period.
Last year was also a sad year as we lost our sister Dr Carissa Etienne, the former Regional Director for the Americas and Director of PAHO.
This Health Assembly also marks the last for another of our Regional Directors, who has led her region with formidable dedication, determination and distinction: Dr Tshidi Moeti.
My sister Tshidi, thank you for your outstanding contribution to the health of the people of Africa, and for your partnership in the Global Policy Group.
I look forward to working with whomever Member States choose as your successor, and I also look forward to continuing to work with you in whatever you decide to do next.
As we say, once WHO, always WHO.
Finally, I would like to thank someone who is well-known to all Member States for his tireless work as Director of Governing Bodies for the past eight years: Dr Tim Armstrong.
Dr Armstrong is leaving Geneva tomorrow to become the WHO Country Representative in Lao PDR.
Tim, thank you for everything that you and your team have done. I wish you the very best, and I know that our loss is Lao's gain.
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Excellencies,
I began the week by reflecting on our theme of All for Health, and Health for All.
I asked you to show the world that in these divided and divisive times, nations can still come together to find a common approach to common challenges.
And that is exactly what you have done.
Of course, there are differences between you, and there are things on which you do not agree.
That is not remarkable. We live in a complex world, and the geopolitical, ideological, economic and cultural differences between nations are evident here as they are in other international fora.
It's far more remarkable that despite the real differences between Member States, you are able to find so much common cause, and so much common ground.
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You have shown that what unites you is greater than what divides you.
And in that sense, you have shown the world the meaning of All for Health, and Health for All.
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Finally, Honourable Minister Dr Edwin Dikoloti, my deep gratitude to you for your leadership as President of the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly.
I would like to invite you now to receive the ceremonial gavel as a token of our appreciation.
[DG PRESENTS MINISTER DIKOLOTI WITH THE CEREMONIAL GAVEL]
I also Mr Apurva Chandra of India and Dr Feras Hawari of Jordan for your leadership as Chairs of Committee A and B respectively.
First, I would like to invite Apurva Chandra to receive the ceremonial gavel as a token of our appreciation.
[DG PRESENTS MR CHANDRA WITH THE CEREMONIAL GAVEL]
I would like to invite Dr Feras Hawari to receive the ceremonial gavel as a token of our appreciation.
[DG PRESENTS DR HAWARI WITH THE CEREMONIAL GAVEL]
Thank you once again to all Member States for your commitment to promoting, providing and protecting the health of the world's people.
I wish you a safe trip home.
Thank you.
