No images? Click here Monday, 19 May 2025 WHO Director-General's High-Level Welcome at the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly – 19 May 2025 19 May 2025 Honourable President of the World Health Assembly, Secretary Teodoro Herbosa, Federal Councillor of the Swiss Confederation Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, Director-General of the United Nations in Geneva Tatiana Valovaya, And I would also like to acknowledge the presence of my predecessor, former WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan, Excellencies, honourable ministers and heads of delegation, dear colleagues and friends, Mabuhay, and welcome to the 78th World Health Assembly. Every World Health Assembly is significant, but this year’s is especially so. At this Assembly, Member States will consider, and hopefully adopt, the WHO Pandemic Agreement. This is truly a historic moment. Even in the middle of crisis, and in the face of significant opposition, you worked tirelessly, you never gave up, and you reached your goal. When you finally reached consensus on the morning of the 16th of April, after an intense night of negotiations – and I was honoured to be in the room to witness that, it was a mixture of emotions for all of us: joy, triumph, relief, exhaustion. But that night, seeing your commitment, I was so moved. You made it. I look forward to your adoption of the Agreement, and to celebrating that adoption with you at tomorrow’s high-level welcome. === Excellencies, It is an honour to deliver to you my report for 2024 – a year of significant challenges and significant achievements. The Results Report for 2024 provides a more comprehensive account than I can provide today, and I commend it to you. It shows how we are using your resources to achieve tangible results. At this Assembly last year, Member States approved the 14th General Programme of Work, with its three-fold mission to promote, provide and protect health. Allow me, as I always do, to pick out a few highlights, according to each of those three priorities. First, our mission to promote health and prevent disease, by addressing its root causes, in the air people breathe, the food they eat, the water they drink, the roads they use, and the conditions in which they live and work. It’s now 20 years since the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control entered into force. In that time, smoking prevalence has dropped by one-third globally, and there are 300 million fewer smokers today than there would have been had prevalence remained the same. Every year, WHO supports more countries to implement evidence-based measures to fight tobacco. Last year Côte d’Ivoire, Georgia, Lao PDR and Oman introduced plain packaging; Viet Nam prohibited e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products; And through our partnership in the Tobacco-Free Farms Initiative, we have supported more than 9000 tobacco farmers in Kenya and Zambia to shift away from growing tobacco to growing high-iron beans. With WHO support, 15 countries increased taxes on unhealthy products last year, including tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks. Five countries passed best practice policies on trans fat elimination: Colombia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Nepal and Qatar; And today we will recognize four more countries for the same achievement: Austria, Norway, Oman and Singapore. You know trans fat elimination and its impact on cardiovascular diseases. Congratulations to those countries. Thirty-four countries have also joined the Acceleration Plan to stop obesity; We published a new guideline on wasting, and we helped to secure multiyear funding for 15 high-burden countries, reaching more than nine million and saving an estimated one million lives. In February this year, we co-hosted the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Morocco, where countries made strong commitments, and I thank His Majesty the King and His Excellency the Head of Government for their strong leadership and support on this issue. In March we also co-hosted the Global Conference on Air Pollution on Health in Colombia, and I likewise thank His Excellency President Gustavo Petro for his strong support and leadership on that issue. If recommendations are implemented, I know we will make good progress. WHO continues to support countries to address the causes of air pollution, mitigate its impacts, and build climate-friendly and climate-resilient health systems. Together with GAVI and UNICEF, we are supporting the electrification of 1000 health facilities through solar systems in Ethiopia, Uganda, Pakistan and Zambia. One thing I would like to remind you is that GAVI will have its replenishment in June in Brussels, and I urge you give your full support. In Ukraine, we worked with partners to improve water, sanitation, hygiene and waste services at over 200 health facilities; And we have now established a formal partnership with past, present, and future climate COP Presidencies to ensure health remains at the centre of future climate discussions. === Now to the second pillar of our mission, to provide health by expanding equitable and affordable access to essential health services. Through the UHC Partnership, we provided support to 36 countries last year to develop packages of services for universal health coverage, based on the foundation of strong primary health care, including eight countries with humanitarian crises. We also supported 11 countries to analyse their health and labour market to shape national strategies and investment plans; And last year we trained 15 000 health workers in more than 160 countries to address the physical and mental health needs of refugees and migrants. In December last year I also had the honour of joining President Emmanuel Macron to open the WHO Academy in Lyon. The WHO Academy will be a game-changer in terms of building capacity in countries by providing lifelong training, online and in-person, for health and care workers, policymakers, and the WHO workforce. Just as we work to expand access to health services, so we are working to expand access to medicines and health products, and to strengthen regulatory authorities around the world. Last year we designated 33 regulators as WHO Listed Authorities, which will significantly expedite WHO prequalification of medicines that have already been approved by one of these “regulators of reference”. We also recognized Egypt, India, Rwanda, Senegal and Zimbabwe for achieving or maintaining maturity level 3 for regulatory oversight of medicines and vaccines; We prequalified 126 medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and other products; We gave Emergency Use Listing to two vaccines, for mpox and a variant of COVID-19; We launched a new platform with information on more than 2500 types of medical devices; And we selected 481 non-proprietary names for active pharmaceutical ingredients. At the same time, we are working to protect precious medicines against the steady march of antimicrobial resistance. Last year’s UN High-Level Meeting on AMR resulted in a commitment to reduce the number of AMR-related deaths by 10% by 2030; And the Jeddah commitments will help to translate the political declaration into real-world action, and I thank the Minister and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the successful AMR meeting. Over 170 countries now have national action plans on AMR, and more countries are adopting WHO’s recommendations. Nepal, for example, has banned the use of antibiotic combinations that WHO classifies as not recommended. Last year we also developed the first guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for manufacturing of antibiotics, and the AMR Industry Alliance updated its standard to align with WHO guidance. === On maternal and child mortality, after substantial improvements during the MDG era, progress has largely stalled. We continue to work with Member States to identify the barriers and to give them the tools to overcome them. Over 50 countries have now developed acceleration plans to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and prevent stillbirths. Last year, Tanzania opened 30 new care units for newborns, while Pakistan, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Malawi are also making progress. To increase uptake of family planning practices, we developed a protocol to rapidly assess bottlenecks, which 27 countries are now implementing. We also published new guidelines on neonatal sepsis childbirth pneumonia, and quality of care. And we continue to support countries to catch up on routine immunization. When the Expanded Programme on Immunization was launched in 1974, less than 5% of the world’s children were immunized. Today, that figure stands at 83%. EPI has been the single biggest contributor to infant and child survival globally, preventing 154 million deaths – an average of 8000 a day for 50 years. And we continue to support countries to introduce new vaccines to save lives. Since the start of 2024, six new countries have introduced HPV vaccines; Nine of Africa's most affected countries are preparing to rollout the new Men5CV meningitis vaccine; And we have supported the delivery of more than 27 million doses of malaria vaccine in 20 countries in Africa. Meanwhile, we are living in a golden age of disease elimination. Last year, Cabo Verde and Egypt were certified as malaria free, and already this year Georgia has reached the same status. Congratulations to those countries. We also confirmed seven countries for the elimination of neglected tropical diseases: Brazil, Chad, India, Jordan, Pakistan, Timor Leste and Viet Nam; And so far this year, Guinea, Mauritania and Papua New Guinea have all been confirmed for the elimination of NTDs. Last year, only 15 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported from just 12 villages in Chad and South Sudan. I would like to acknowledge the strong personal commitment of the late President Jimmy Carter to Guinea worm eradication. Although he sadly did not live to see his dream achieved, his legacy will endure through the work of the Carter Center. We validated Guinea for the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus; And Brazil was re-validated for measles elimination. Since the start of last year, we validated Belize, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis - congratulations; We re-validated Armenia and Dominica for elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV; Namibia for being on the path to elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and hepatitis B; And this year we validated Botswana for becoming the first country to reach gold tier status on the path to elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. On HIV, 77% of people living with HIV globally are now accessing treatment, up from 69% in 2020, and 19 countries have achieved the 95-95-95 targets ahead of the 2025 deadline. On hepatitis, last year we reached 38 focus countries with new simplified treatment guidelines for hepatitis B; We supported 10 countries in Africa to introduce hepatitis B vaccination at birth; And with the support of WHO, Pakistan launched the Prime Minister’s Programme for the Elimination of hepatitis C, aiming to screen more than 80 million people and treat almost 4 million - it's a very ambitious target. On tuberculosis, WHO’s work is enabling more people to be treated with better medicines, tested with better diagnostics, and we’re supporting the development of better TB vaccines. A pivotal phase 3 trial of the lead vaccine candidate has completed recruitment in record time, enrolling over 20 000 volunteers in South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Indonesia. We await the results of what could be the first effective TB Vaccine in over 100 years. In addition, treatment coverage for TB has now reached 75% globally for the first time; And last year, we launched groundbreaking guidelines for shorter, fully oral, more effective regimens for people with drug-resistant TB, which have now been adopted in 109 countries. On mental health, we supported countries to expand access to mental health services for 70 million people in nine countries, providing care to more than one million people. We also provided life-saving medication for 2.1 million people with severe mental illness in conflict settings including Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia. However, requests for medications for mental health have stopped almost completely in some countries, due to funding limits and competing priorities, leaving people with severe illness with no support, in the middle of crisis. Through our partnership on childhood cancer with St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the U.S., we have begun distributing medicines free of charge in lower-income countries. We aim to reach 12 000 children with cancer in 12 countries this year. On cervical cancer, 155 Member States now have national guidelines on cervical screening, based on WHO guidelines. On hypertension, more than 30 countries have now implemented the WHO HEARTS programme, reaching more than 12 million patients across 165 000 primary care facilities. And just one year after its launch, WHO’s SPECS 2030 Initiative is supporting access to affordable eyeglasses in 16 countries, including to people in remote areas. === Now to the third pillar of our mission, supporting countries to protect health by preventing and responding rapidly to health emergencies. In 2024, WHO coordinated the response to 51 graded emergencies in 89 countries: outbreaks, natural disasters, conflicts and more. We deployed and delivered urgently needed specialist medical supplies worth US$ 196 million to 80 countries; We deployed 89 emergency medical teams; Supported more than 67 outbreak response deployments; And much more. Thank you so much for your support to the Contingency Fund for Emergencies. That really helped in those interventions. We helped to bring cholera outbreaks under control in 27 of 33 affected countries, leaving only six in an acute phase; With WHO support, Rwanda and Tanzania stopped outbreaks of Marburg virus disease; And Uganda stopped an outbreak of Ebola, including a vaccine trial that began within four days of the outbreak. As you know, in August last year I declared a public health emergency of international concern over the outbreaks of mpox in the DRC and other countries in Africa. In response, WHO gave Emergency Use Listing to the first mpox vaccines and tests, and helped to coordinate donations of six million vaccine doses across 15 countries. Meanwhile, 2024 was a year of mixed news for the other public health emergency of international concern – polio. We helped to stop an outbreak of wild poliovirus in Africa, but the number of cases detected in Pakistan and Afghanistan rose from 12 in 2024 to 99 last year. Ten cases have been reported so far this year. In response to a resurgence of polio in Gaza, WHO negotiated a humanitarian pause for a vaccination campaign that reached more than 560 000 children. We stopped polio, but the people of Gaza continue to face multiple other threats. Two months into the latest blockade, two million people are starving, while 116 000 tonnes of food is blocked at the border just minutes away. The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade. Increasing hostilities, evacuation orders, shrinking humanitarian space and the aid blockade are driving an influx of casualties to a health system that is already on its knees. People are dying from preventable diseases as medicines wait at the border, while attacks on hospitals deny people care, and deter them from seeking it. Since November 2023, WHO has supported medical evacuations of more than 7300 patients, including 617 cancer patients. We thank St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the European Union for their support and partnership in making these evacuations possible. However, more than 10,000 patients still need medical evacuation out of Gaza. We ask Member States to accept more patients, and we ask Israel to allow these evacuations, and to allow urgently needed food and medicine to enter Gaza. WHO stands ready, with our UN partners, to move rapidly to deliver it, if and when it is allowed to enter. In Sudan, an estimated 32 000 people have been killed, 30% of the population is displaced and 20 million people need humanitarian aid. I visited Sudan in September, where I saw the effects of the civil war and met people who are paying the price. The following week I was in Chad, where I travelled to the border town of Adré and met some of the 900 000 Sudanese refugees who have fled, seeking security and food. And they are just a fraction of the 122 million people globally who have been forced to flee their homes. In Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere, we continue to see attacks on health care, which are becoming a “new normal” of conflict. Last year we verified more than 1500 attacks on health care in 15 countries and territories, killing more than 900 people. In every country, the best medicine is peace, and a political solution. I hope peace will prevail that can transcend generations. War is not the solution. Peace is the solution. === In response to the lessons learned from COVID-19 and other health emergencies, WHO is supporting countries to strengthen their capacities through the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Framework. We are supporting countries to strengthen their capacities in genomic surveillance, and every day, we scan the world for public health threats through the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources platform. Last year, we assessed more than 15 million potential signals from 13 thousand sources; The Pandemic Fund has provided US$ 885 million in grants, catalyzing an additional US$ 6 billion in co-financing, supporting 47 projects across 75 countries. Through the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, the International Pathogen Surveillance Network now connects 350 organizations in 100 countries. You know the Berlin Hub is a product of the lessons learned from COVID-19; And the Research and Development Blueprint for Epidemics and Pandemics is managing Collaborative Open Research Consortia for 12 families of pathogens, involving over 5000 scientists to drive R&D and identify gaps in countermeasures. I would especially like to acknowledge the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil – Fiocruz, which is leading one of those consortia. I thank Fiocruz for its partnership and offer my warm congratulations on its 125th anniversary. Feliz aniversário Fiocruz. The mRNA Technology Transfer Programme, based in South Africa, is now sharing technology with a network of 15 partner countries globally; The Global Training Hub in the Republic of Korea has helped to train over 7000 participants in biomanufacturing; The BioHub is facilitating sharing of samples; All of these, as well, are based on the lessons learned during COVID-19. And just last month the Global Health Emergency Corps ran a two-day simulation called Exercise Polaris, with 350 experts from 15 countries to test capacities for deploying and connecting health expertise during health emergencies. Through the OpenWHO platform, more than nine million people accessed learning, supporting the response to 26 outbreaks. At this Assembly last year, Member States adopted a package of amendments to the International Health Regulations, and WHO is supporting countries to prepare for their entry into force in September this year 2025. We are also supporting voluntary national and global peer reviews of preparedness through the Universal Health and Preparedness Review. Last year we supported 19 Joint External Evaluations, 28 after-action reviews, and 34 simulation exercises. For the first time, we have 195 countries reporting on their IHR capacities through the States Parties Annual Report, the SPAR. So based on the COVID lessons, there are significant changes that are happening, and we need to continue to push. In addition to these general preparedness activities, we’re also supporting countries to prepare for specific threats, including Ebola. With Gavi, we vaccinated 150,000 health workers in six countries against Ebola, the first time this has happened outside of an outbreak response, to prevent any future outbreak. We also supported the vaccination of 65 million people against Yellow Fever in four countries; And through the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System, GISRS, more than 12 million samples were collected and tested, and 50 000 samples were shared with WHO Influenza Collaborating Centers. We recommended nine new zoonotic candidate vaccine viruses, available globally to manufacturers to produce vaccines in case of an influenza pandemic. As we have agreed, preparation is continuous. That's why. === Honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends, All of this work to promote, provide and protect health is supported by our efforts at all three levels of the Organization on the fourth and fifth Ps of GPW14: to power and perform for health, through science, digital technologies, data and our ongoing Transformation. Last year, we conducted a review of our Transformation, to see what has worked, and what has not. Based on the review, we have reprioritised Transformation and aligned it with the priorities of the GPW14. One of the successes of Transformation has been our increased focus on science, data and digital health. And this is the future of the Organization. WHO’s normative, standard-setting work is its bread and butter, and we have streamlined processes to give Member States the highest quality, evidence-based advice as fast as possible. Last year there were 65 million downloads of WHO publications, guidance, and other materials. We launched important new guidelines on avian influenza, artificial intelligence, clinical trials, tobacco cessation, Mpox, and so much more. Starting this year, we are aligning our guidelines and normative work with prequalification, meaning we will prequalify a product and issue guidelines on how to use it at the same time. The first product under this new process will be lenacapavir, an exciting new medicine for the treatment and prevention of HIV. Although a true HIV vaccine remains elusive, lenacapavir is the next best thing: an injectable antiretroviral taken every six months that has been shown to prevent almost all HIV infections in those at risk. We expect to conclude both the guideline and prequalification processes this year, which will support the subsequent rollout of this product. Another success of Transformation has been our increased focus on digital health. Over the past five years, WHO has supported almost 75% of Member States to develop strategies to harness digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, to strengthen their health systems. WHO hosts the Global Digital Health Certification Network, which last year enabled the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Indonesia and Malaysia to issue 250 000 international patient summaries for 2024 Hajj pilgrims, supporting emergency care for 78% of scanned records. Many more countries are joining this year. The Network now covers 82 countries, benefiting nearly two billion people. I thank the EU for its continued support for this work. Another key element of our transformation has been our focus on data. Every country in the world now accesses the World Health Data Hub, which is a secure and standardized pathway to increased transparency, accountability, and progress. === Honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends, I hope that we have many achievements to celebrate, but we also know that many countries face significant challenges. Many ministers have told me that sudden and steep cuts to bilateral aid are causing severe disruption in their countries, and imperilling the health of millions of people. In at least 70 countries, patients are missing out on treatments, health facilities have closed, health workers have lost their jobs, and people face increased out-of-pocket health spending. Although this is a challenge, many countries also see this as an opportunity to leave behind the era of aid dependency and accelerate the transition to sustainable self-reliance, based on domestic resources. We are doing our best to support countries to make that transition. And yet, at precisely the time that Member States need a strong WHO, it is being challenged. Although our current situation is difficult, it should not be a surprise to any of us. It is a situation many years in the making, and one that we saw coming. When we began the WHO Transformation eight years ago = as soon as I started my tenure as Director-General - one of the main problems we set out to address was WHO’s over-reliance on earmarked, voluntary funding from a handful of traditional donors. We have implemented several measures to alleviate that problem, with your support over the past five years. We published the first Investment Case, established the WHO Foundation, conducted the first Investment Round, and three years ago, the Health Assembly took an historic decision to increase assessed contributions progressively to 50% of the base budget. This is the highest increase in the history of this Organization. Thank you for your confidence and for that historic decision in 2022. This week, I ask you to approve the next increase, to make another step towards securing the long-term financial sustainability and independence of your WHO. Already, the first increase has made a huge difference. If it had not happened, our current financial situation would be much worse – US$ 300 million worse. Even so, we are facing a salary gap for the next biennium of more than US$ 500 million. The Secretariat has taken a range of measures to curtail costs in travel, procurement, recruitment, early retirement and more. These measures have helped to narrow the gap, but still, there is no alternative but to reduce the size of our workforce. We are doing this reduction carefully, to protect the quality of our work, and ensure that we are positioned to emerge from this crisis stronger, more empowered and more independent. As you know, we have been engaging in a major structural realignment, guided by an in-depth analysis of priorities, deliberate and conscious. The prioritization exercise has informed the development of a new streamlined structure for headquarters, which reduces the executive management team from 14 to 7, and the number of departments from 76 to 34. Some Member States called the new structure "lean and mean". I think it's more focused and it could be more impactful as well. Last week I announced our new executive management team, and in the coming weeks, we will decide which directors will lead which departments. This was an extremely difficult decision for me – as it is for every manager in our Organization who is having to decide who stays, and who goes. I wish to place on record my deep gratitude to the outgoing members of our executive management team: Dr Mike Ryan, Dr Samira Asma, Dr Bruce Aylward, Dr Catharina Boehme, Dr Li Ailan and Dr Jérôme Salomon. Each of them has served the Organization, and the people of the world, with distinction and dedication. I ask you to join me in thanking them for their contribution. Excellencies, Let’s be clear: a reduced workforce means a reduced scope of work. The Organization simply cannot do everything Member States have asked it to do with the resources available. This week, you will consider a reduced programme budget of US$ 4.2 billion for the 2026-2027 biennium. This represents a 21% reduction on the original proposed budget of US$ 5.3 billion. Assuming you approve the increase in assessed contributions, and thanks to the Investment Round, we are confident that we have already secured more than US$ 2.6 billion, or 60 percent of the funding for the next biennium. That leaves an anticipated budget gap of more than US$ 1.7 billion. We know that in the current landscape, mobilizing that sum will be a challenge. We are not naïve to that challenge, but for an organization working on the ground in 150 countries, with the vast mission and mandate that Member States have given us, US$ 4.2 billion for two years – or 2.1 billion a year – is not ambitious, it’s extremely modest. I hope you will agree with me, and I will tell you why: US$ 2.1 billion is the equivalent of global military expenditure every eight hours; US$ 2.1 billion is the price of one stealth bomber - to kill people; US$ 2.1 billion is one-quarter of what the tobacco industry spends on advertising and promotion every single year. And again, a product that kills people. It seems somebody switched the price tags on what is truly valuable in our world. At the Munich Security Conference in February – I’m a regular attender since I became a foreign minister in 2012. At that conference, a foreign minister spoke to me about the large increases in defence spending announced by some countries. Many countries are doubling or tripling their defence spending, and everybody knows this – billions or trillions of dollars. “We have to prepare for the worst,” he said. I said, “I understand, but what about preparing for an attack from an invisible enemy? Because you are only considering the tanks that may roll over your borders or the drones that may come overhead? How about the invisible enemy. The COVID-19 pandemic killed an estimated 20 million people and wiped more than US$ 10 trillion from the global economy.” I don't think you remember any war in recent memory that killed 20 million people. Countries spend vast sums protecting themselves against attacks from other countries, but relatively little on protecting themselves from an invisible enemy that can cause far more damage. If we think US$ 2.1 billion a year is ambitious – or 4.2 billion for the biennium – then either we must lower our ambitions for what WHO is and does, or we must raise the money. I know which I will choose, and I hope you will choose the same. On that note, I remind you of tomorrow’s Investment Round event, and we look forward to seeing new pledges from Member States and philanthropic donors. === Honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends, In 1951, the newly-born WHO was already being buffeted by the prevailing geopolitical winds of its time – just as it is today. In her opening address, the Acting President of the World Health Assembly that year, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, the first Minister of Health of India, and the first woman to preside at this Assembly, said this: “The dark clouds that overshadow our skies today can – and must – be dispelled by the fulfilment on our part of the pledge to serve one another. Our work is surely a precious heritage which we may not forsake, and a positive factor for overcoming the root causes of conflict.” Today, and this week, I ask you to remember those words. We are here to serve not our own interests, but the eight billion people of our world; To leave a heritage for those who come after us; for our children and our grandchildren; And to work together for a healthier, more peaceful and more equitable world. It's possible. Our current crisis is an opportunity to do just that, and together, we will do it. I thank you.   Media contacts: mediainquiries@who.int   You are receiving this NO-REPLY email because you are included on a WHO mail list. If you have been forwarded this update you can click here to subscribe. Journalists may send feedback to WHO Media Team       Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  World Health Organization, Avenue Appia 20, 1202 Geneva 27, Switzerland  Preferences  |  Unsubscribe