| No images? Click here  Monday, 2 February 2026 WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the 158th session of the Executive Board – 2 February 2026https://www.who.int/news-room/speeches/item/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-158th-session-of-the-executive-board-2-february-2026 Audio - https://who.canto.global/b/P77JG Video - https://who.canto.global/b/I2UC1 Chair, Secretary Blair Comley, Our vice-chairs, Honourable Ministers, Ambassadors, heads of delegation, members of the Executive Board, dear colleagues and friends, Good morning and a warm welcome back to WHO – your WHO. 2025 was a year of stark contrasts for our Organization, as we all know. On one hand, it was a landmark year: the WHO Pandemic Agreement was adopted; the amended International Health Regulations entered into force; the next increase in assessed contributions was approved; and the United Nations General Assembly adopted an ambitious political declaration on noncommunicable diseases and mental health. On the other hand, it was undeniably one of the most difficult years in our Organization’s history. Significant cuts to our funding left us with no choice but to reduce the size of our workforce. Of course, WHO is just one part of a much bigger picture. Many other international organizations have been affected. And sudden and severe cuts to bilateral aid have also caused huge disruptions to health systems and services in many countries. I am proud that despite the challenges we faced, there are many achievements to celebrate. Allow me to highlight a few, according to each of the three key priorities of the Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 14): to promote, provide and protect health. First, our work to promote health and prevent disease by addressing its root causes. In response to funding cuts, WHO is supporting many countries to sustain essential health services, and to transition away from aid dependency towards self-reliance, based on domestic resources. One key tool for mobilizing domestic resources is health taxes. That’s why WHO launched the 3 by 35 Initiative last year, calling on all countries to raise the real prices of tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks by at least 50% by 2035. Last year alone, Malaysia, Mauritius, Slovakia, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam were among countries that introduced or increased taxes on one or more of these products. Already this year, India introduced a new excise duty on tobacco and Saudi Arabia introduced a tiered excise tax on sugary drinks. On tobacco, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. Since the FCTC entered into force, tobacco use has dropped by one third globally, and continues to decline in 140 countries. Last year, Maldives became the first country to adopt a generational tobacco ban for people born from 2007. WHO also recognized Austria, Norway, Oman and Singapore for their efforts to eliminate trans fats from their food supplies. The Commission on Social Connection delivered the first global evidence-based framework on loneliness and social isolation. The WHO Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health grew to more than 100 countries, helping them to build climate resilient, low carbon health systems. Member States also endorsed an updated Global Road Map on Air Pollution and Health, including a commitment to halve health impacts by 2040. And new data from the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme showed that one billion more people now have access to safely managed drinking water than a decade ago, saving an estimated 5 million lives. === Now to our work supporting countries to provide health, by strengthening health systems on the road to universal health coverage. Following cuts to bilateral aid, WHO developed guidance on responding to the health financing emergency, supporting countries including Cambodia, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Uganda. In December we established the UHC Knowledge Hub in Tokyo with the World Bank and the Government of Japan, which is now supporting the first cohort of eight countries through capacity-building, knowledge sharing, and by bringing ministries of health and finance together. The latest UHC Global Monitoring Report shows that 4.6 billion people still lack access to essential health services, and 2.1 billion people face financial hardship because of health costs. One of the main reasons people miss out on health services is because they don’t have access to a health worker. The world is facing a shortage of 11 million health workers by 2030, more than half of which is a shortage of nurses. In response, last year WHO supported 11 countries facing the most acute shortages to strengthen their national workforce strategies, contributing to commitments for nearly 100 000 new health worker jobs. With WHO’s support, South Africa has expanded its health workforce by 28% over the past five years. Building the capacity of the global health workforce was one of the main reasons for establishing the WHO Academy in Lyon, with the support of the Government of France, which now brings together in one place our work on health workforce policy, strategy, data and advocacy, alongside learning. The Academy now offers more than 250 courses free of charge, in up to 20 languages, with more than 100 000 enrolments last year. I urge all Member States to make use of this resource. It is there for you. One of the courses the Academy offers is the Basic Emergency Care programme, which provides standardized training on how to manage acutely ill patients. A study of over 35 000 patients in 17 hospitals in Nepal, Uganda and Zambia showed a reduction in mortality of between 34% and 50% following the implementation of the WHO Academy Basic Emergency Care training. === We also continue to support countries to strengthen their health data systems, including through the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence. We expanded the Global Digital Health Certification Network to 82 countries, enabling 2 billion people to access their health records on national digital health wallets. And we have now rolled out ICD-11 to 132 Member States. Every day, our ICD systems receive around 3 million requests for information, improving data quality ensuring generating insight into population health trends. === We also continue supporting countries to expand access to essential medicines. Last year, we prequalified 44 medicines, nine vaccines, 10 in vitro diagnostics, 21 medical devices, eight vector control products, and we performed 185 inspections of manufacturing sites. We updated the Essential Medicines List to include new medicines for cancer and GLP-1s for diabetes in people with obesity; We reviewed 5000 pediatric formulations to prioritize those that are optimised and age-appropriate for children. And we designated five more agencies as WHO Listed Authorities: Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan and the United Kingdom. This will help expedite regulatory processes and have medicines available in time. In addition, we recognized Ethiopia for reaching maturity level 3 for regulatory oversight of medicines and vaccines; And seven member states in the African region won a global UN award for their pooled procurement initiative, which was supported by WHO and has helped them to realise significant cost savings. In addition, the World Health Assembly adopted the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Strategy and launched the Traditional Medicine Global Library, with over 1.6 million scientific records. On antimicrobial resistance, the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System – GLASS – showed that 1 in 6 bacterial infections globally are now resistant to antibiotics, and the trend is increasing. Concerningly, GLASS also shows that many countries are potentially accelerating resistance by using antibiotics that are in the “watch” category, when they could be using antibiotics in the “access” category. In Kyrgyzstan, WHO supported a national survey that catalyzed a total shift in the national AMR plan. And through the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases – TDR – we supported research on AMR that shaped national and regional strategies in Ghana, Colombia and Ecuador. === In addition to our work to strengthen the foundations of health systems, we also saw progress on our disease-specific programmes. On maternal mortality, WHO released updated estimates that more than 55 high-burden countries used to refocus on proven interventions. With partners, we issued the first consolidated guideline on postpartum haemorrhage, creating a single global clinical standard for the leading cause of maternal death that is saving lives when applied consistently. We also issued our first global guideline on infertility, and published updated global estimates on violence against women. === On immunization, despite funding cuts we protected the Global Measles and Rubella Lab Network, enabling our network of more than 740 labs to process more than 700 000 tests to detect and respond to measles outbreaks globally. We supported seven new countries to introduce malaria vaccines, bringing the total to 24; And we supported 15 more countries to introduce HPV vaccination to prevent cervical cancer. Since we launched the global call to action to eliminate cervical cancer in 2018, almost 75 countries have introduced HPV vaccination, meaning 65% of girls globally now live in a country with routine HPV vaccination. In response to concerns about vaccine safety, WHO conducted an analysis of 31 studies in multiple countries over 15 years that showed once again that vaccines, including those containing thiomersal and aluminium adjuvants do not cause autism. Vaccines are also bringing us closer to the eradication of polio, with 41 cases of wild polio reported last year from just 24 districts in Pakistan and Afghanistan, down from 99 cases in 49 districts in 2024. In addition, Madagascar stopped its polio outbreak, and countries around Lake Chad mounted a joint vaccination campaign that reached more than 83 million children; And with partners WHO vaccinated over 600 000 children in Gaza, controlling the Strip’s first recorded polio outbreak in 25 years. 2025 was another year in which more countries eliminated neglected tropical diseases. Burundi, Egypt, Fiji, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea and Senegal eliminated trachoma, Guinea and Kenya eliminated sleeping sickness, and Niger became the first African country to eliminate river blindness. In addition, WHO certified Georgia, Suriname and Timor Leste as malaria-free; Maldives became the first country to achieve triple elimination of mother-to-child-transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B; Brazil was validated for eliminating vertical transmission of HIV; And Botswana reached gold tier status on the path to elimination. WHO also prequalified lenacapavir for HIV prevention and published guidelines on its use, supporting the first 14 countries to accelerate the rollout of this new tool that could change the trajectory of the HIV epidemic. Lenacapavir is the nearest thing we have to an HIV vaccine: a long-acting injectable antiretroviral taken every six months that has been shown to prevent almost all HIV infections in those at risk. It’s the first example of a new approach to develop prequalification and guidelines in parallel, not in sequence, to speed up equitable access to innovative new tools. On TB, WHO supported countries to scale up rapid TB diagnostics, and promoted shorter and more effective treatment regimens. And the TB Vaccine Accelerator is working with countries to prepare for the rapid integration of new TB vaccines into health systems should they succeed in phase three trials. === On noncommunicable diseases, as I mentioned earlier, the UN General Assembly adopted the most ambitious political declaration yet, with concrete targets on tobacco, hypertension and mental health. We also issued new guidelines on the use of GLP-1s for the treatment of obesity in adults; And WHO initiatives on cervical, breast and childhood cancer are now benefiting over one million people in more than 100 countries. In partnership with St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, we delivered 1.5 million cancer medicines, supporting treatment for 2400 children in five countries. We also supported 14 more countries to strengthen mental health services for children and young people. Since it launched in 2020, WHO’s Special Initiative for Mental Health has expanded mental health services to over 90 million people and enabled first-time treatment for more than 1.5 million children and adults. And we supported 29 countries to scale up access to spectacles. As many of us know, including me, a pair of glasses can make a huge difference to quality of life. === Now to WHO’s work to support Member States to prevent, prepare for and respond to health emergencies. This past Friday marked six years since I declared COVID-19 a public health emergency of international concern – and we closed that chapter in May 2023. The pandemic taught all of us many lessons – especially that global threats demand a global response. Solidarity is the best immunity. Most notably last year, Member States adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the amended International Health Regulations entered into force. WHO took many other steps last year to strengthen health emergency preparedness and response. Through the Pandemic Fund with the World Bank, WHO supported countries to develop and implement 41 projects, helping 70 countries to strengthen surveillance, laboratory networks, workforce capacity and multisectoral coordination. The WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence launched an update of the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources system – EIOS – which harnesses the power of AI to support more than 110 countries and 30 organizations, who use the platform every day to quickly identify new threats. Through the International Pathogen Surveillance Network, over 110 countries are also strengthening genomic surveillance to better track pathogens, detect new variants, and guide faster responses to emerging threats. The WHO BioHub coordinated 25 sample shipments to 13 laboratories in nine countries, to guide research and development of countermeasures. Twenty countries completed joint external evaluations, 195 states parties submitted their annual IHR reports, and 22 countries completed their National Action Plan for Health Security. The Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System – GISRS – processed more than 12 million samples. And through the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework – PIP – WHO signed eight new agreements, giving us access to more than 900 million vaccine doses in the event of an influenza pandemic, as well as antivirals, syringes and diagnostics. To protect against outbreaks of yellow fever, we supported the vaccination of more than 38 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Uganda. After a three year break we have also re-established preventive cholera vaccination, allocating 50 million doses to Bangladesh, DRC and Mozambique, thanks in part to a doubling of supply. We supported preventative vaccination for Ebola for approximately 100 000 front line workers in the DRC and Central African Republic. We also established a new stockpile for a monoclonal antibody against Ebola, with treatment courses ready to be shipped in 24 hours if an outbreak is confirmed. Just as we supported countries to prevent and prepare for health emergencies, we also supported them to respond. In 2025, WHO detected 1.2 million signals, assessed and verified about 500 threats, and supported countries to respond to 450 of those events, preventing disease spread and saving lives. You do not see this in the news because they were controlled, managed and contained. In total we responded to 50 emergencies in 82 countries and territories last year. We released US$ 29 million from the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies to support the rapid response to emergencies in 30 countries. Thank you to countries for contributing to the Contingency Fund for Emergencies. And through the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network – GOARN – we coordinated 59 deployments to support emergency response in 16 countries. With WHO support, the DRC controlled an outbreak of Ebola virus disease within six weeks, and Tanzania and Ethiopia controlled outbreaks of Marburg virus disease. And in September, I declared an end to mpox as a public health emergency of international concern. Through the Access and Allocation Mechanism, WHO secured three million doses of mpox vaccine, supporting the vaccination of two million people. We also continued to respond to the global resurgence of cholera, deploying more than 50 million doses of oral cholera vaccine from the global stockpile. We also launched the first WHO guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of meningitis, and supported the response to meningitis outbreaks with 4 million doses of vaccine. In addition to outbreak response, we also responded to the health needs of more than 25 million people affected by humanitarian emergencies in 33 countries. In Gaza, we organized the transport and shipment of 938 trucks of lifesaving emergency health supplies, coordinated more than 80 Health Cluster partners, and supported over 8000 medical evacuations. In Sudan, since the start of the conflict in 2023, we have delivered almost 3000 metric tons of medical supplies, responded to outbreaks of cholera, dengue and malaria, and we are providing direct support to dozens of hospitals, primary health care centres, mobile clinics and nutrition centres. In Ukraine we deployed 17 mobile teams, which provided more than 18 500 health consultations in more than 140 locations. We also supported the medical evacuation of more than 6200 patients, and provided mental health training to more than 150 000 health workers. In all these places, we continue to see attacks on health care as the alarming and illegal new normal of conflict. In 2025, WHO verified 1350 attacks on health care in 19 countries and territories, causing 1981 deaths and 1168 injuries among health workers and patients. Of course, WHO does not work alone. As the Health Cluster lead of the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee, we coordinate over 1500 partners, who reached 32 million people with humanitarian assistance last year. We also coordinated the deployment of more than 100 international emergency medical teams, who provided 1.8 million medical consultations in more than 20 countries. === In addition to all of this work to promote, provide and protect health, the Secretariat supported work on the fourth and fifth Ps of GPW 14: to power and perform for health, through science, digital technologies, data and our ongoing Transformation. Last year, we launched a new global action plan and a new global network to strengthen clinical trials, with 34 major research institutions, advancing equitable research capacities around the world. We also launched a three-year project to modernize the way WHO prioritizes, develops and disseminates our highest-priority guidelines. Through the Alliance on Health Systems Policy and Research, we’re supporting Sri Lanka to establish its Centre for Disease Control and to shape its National Health Policy for the next decade. And this year we are celebrating 25 years of Research4Life and Hinari, which makes scientific publications available for free or at very low-cost in low- and middle-income countries, facilitating access to promote evidence-based policies. === Meanwhile, we continue to take steps to make WHO more accountable, transparent, efficient and effective. WHO’s Office of Internal Oversight Services completed 13 country office audits, two regional office audits and two cross cutting-audits in 2025. There were no unsatisfactory conclusions. We expanded our evaluation function and improved completion rates; And our investigations function handled 1174 cases and closed 636 cases in 2025. The year end caseload fell to 538, which is the lowest in three years. The number of substantiated cases rose to 45. This year we are introducing a new case management system with AI capability, and a new integrity hotline. Both will help to strengthen timely, high-quality investigations and provide safer channels for reporting, strengthening our internal justice. The Regional Office for Africa also hosted the first WHO Strategic Conference on Prevention and Response to Sexual Misconduct in joint WHO–Member State operations, with 42 Member States. And for the first time, Member States agreed to include a gender equality indicator in the results framework in GPW 14. === Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends, I hope you will agree that despite the many challenges we have faced, your Organization has continued to deliver. None of these achievements would have been possible without WHO’s people – my colleagues. Throughout 2025, they continued to serve you with dedication and commitment, even though many of them were uncertain as to whether they would still have a job. I will remember 2025 – as we all should – for them. I express my deep gratitude to all staff who have left or are leaving for their service and dedication. Of course, no process is perfect, and we acknowledge the legitimate concerns that some staff have raised about it. We take those concerns seriously, we have addressed many of them and we continue to do so. We have designed, communicated and implemented the changes we have made based on the principles of transparency, fairness and humanity. By and large, the outcome was good. Although there are still a few issues to finalize, we have now largely completed the prioritization and realignment. We have reached a position of stability and we are moving forward. It’s important to remember that although the cuts we faced last year were a shock, they were a shock we saw coming, and for which we have been preparing. When we began the WHO Transformation more than eight years ago, we identified our over-reliance on a handful of donors as a major risk, and we took several measures to address it. Most significantly, we proposed – and in 2022 the World Health Assembly approved – a plan to progressively increase assessed contributions to 50% of the base budget, from just 14% at the time. Member States approved the first increase in May 2023, the second increase last year, May 2025, and the next three increases are scheduled for approval in May 2027, May 2029 and May 2031. We also took a series of other steps to broaden our donor base, including by establishing the WHO Foundation and conducting our first Investment Round, with your support. Thanks to all these measures, we have now mobilized 85% of the resources we need for the base budget this biennium, 2026–27. At one level, we are in a better position than ever before at this stage of a biennium. However, because the majority of voluntary contributions remain earmarked, we continue to see pockets of poverty, including for our work on emergency preparedness, AMR, health financing, climate resilience, determinants of health and more. And although 85% sounds good – and it is – the environment is very difficult and the remaining 15% will be hard to mobilise. If you had not approved the increase in assessed contributions, we would have been in a far worse situation than we are. This demonstrates why Member States must continue on the same path and approve the remaining increases, to secure the long-term stability, sustainability and independence of WHO – not only until 2031 but even beyond. When I say independence, I don’t mean independence from Member States, of course. WHO belongs to you, and always will. I mean non-dependence on a handful of donors; I mean non-dependence on inflexible, unpredictable funding; I mean a WHO that that is no longer a contractor to the biggest donors; I mean an impartial, science-based organization that is free to say what the evidence says, without fear or favour. Although we have faced a significant crisis in the past year, we have also viewed it as an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for a leaner WHO to become more focused on its core mission and mandate, including in the context of the UN80 reform initiative. This means sharpening our focus on our core mandate and comparative advantage, doing what we do best – supporting countries through our normative and technical work – and leaving to others what they do best. WHO can’t do everything, and we shouldn’t try. WHO’s superpower is its convening power – the ability to bring together governments, experts, institutions, partners, civil society and the private sector under one umbrella. Our success – and yours – lies in harnessing that power, including through our network of more than 800 collaborating centres – a powerful resource for strengthening our normative work and ensuring that evidence drives policy. After all, the needs of the countries we serve are always evolving, so WHO must also continue to evolve. That means that the governance of WHO must evolve. If we want an agile, efficient and effective Secretariat, we need agile, efficient and effective governance. I hope you will support the Chair in the governance reform he proposed. If we want a Secretariat that can deliver on Member State priorities, we need Member States to prioritize, and to resource those priorities. This is your WHO – it is what you want it to be, and what you make it. And as WHO evolves, so must the global health architecture – or as I prefer to say, the global health ecosystem. There are now many discussions on reforming that ecosystem to ensure all partners leverage their comparative advantage, avoid overlaps and duplication, and that together we deliver value and results for the countries we serve. We are proposing to bring those discussions together into a joint process to help transition to a leaner, more collaborative and impactful global health ecosystem, in support of country priorities. We look forward to your advice and guidance on that and the other agenda items before you this week. === Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends, We can see the difficulties of the past year as a setback, or we can choose to see them as the catalyst for the future of WHO. The path forward is clear. It is the path we have already charted; it is the foundation we have already laid in the Transformation and the realignment: To secure our financial stability and sustainability; To strengthen our normative and technical leadership; To reform our governance; To reshape the global health ecosystem; To leverage our collective strengths; To reinforce our solidarity; And to do it all in service of country-led priorities – your priorities. That’s why you founded WHO in the first place – to create a place where the nations of the world work together to find shared solutions to shared threats. That’s why you adopted the Pandemic Agreement last year; And that’s why you are now negotiating the PABS Annex, and I am confident that you will conclude your negotiations in time for this year’s World Health Assembly. The story of 2025 is not one of austerity but resolve. It is the story of the people of this Organization serving the people of this world. They are the reason WHO is here, and the reason we will continue to be here. This is your WHO. Its strength is your unity. Its future is your choice. I thank you.
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Monday, February 2, 2026
WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the 158th session of the Executive Board – 2 February 2026
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