‘Post-Covid challenges and opportunities: the urgency to reinforce the SDGs for a better pandemic recovery.’
Your Excellency Minister Nisia Trindade Lima,
Fiocruz Director Mauricio Zuma,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning.
First of all, my congratulations to Your Excellency on your appointment as Minister, and my deep thanks to Brazil and Fiocruz for hosting this meeting, and for the invitation to address you.
Today I’m joining you from Damascus, in the Syrian Arab Republic, where I have been visiting areas affected by the devastating earthquake that hit this region one week ago.
I have seen with my own eyes the total devastation of entire communities, the unspeakable suffering of people, and the courage and determination of survivors and responders.
In Aleppo on Saturday, I met Nour, a girl who lost both her parents and suffered a broken arm when their 6-storey apartment building collapsed.
She is just one example of an unfolding tragedy that is affecting millions.
WHO is providing medical supplies, supporting specialised medical care for people with injuries and mental health conditions, and much more.
This country now faces a second crisis, as many survivors are facing freezing conditions without adequate shelter, heating, food, clean water, or medical care.
The impact of this disaster is compounded by the fact that the health system is unable to respond, having been weakened by more than a decade of conflict and economic decline, in addition to outbreaks of cholera and measles, and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic.
The earthquake is another reminder of one of the key lessons of the pandemic: the need for country to strengthen its defences against emergencies of all kinds, and in particular to build resilient health systems.
The COVID-19 pandemic has not just been a health crisis: it has caused an economic crisis, a social crisis, even a political crisis.
It shows that when health is at risk, everything is at risk.
The pandemic wiped out more than four years of progress on poverty eradication and pushed 93 million more people into extreme poverty in 2020.
It has disrupted essential health services, resulting in a drop in immunization coverage for the first time in a decade, along with a rise in deaths from tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases we should be able to control.
Prolonged school closures affected millions of children and young people, ranging from pre-primary to university levels. It is estimated that put 24 million learners are at risk of not returning to school.
Progress on the health-related SDG targets is only a quarter of what is needed to achieve them by 2030.
It is critical that we act together to support all countries to achieve an equitable and sustainable future.
WHO has outlined five priorities– the “five Ps” – for supporting countries in their path towards the SDGs:
First, promoting health, with a paradigm shift to address the root causes of disease and injuries;
Second, providing health, by reorientating health systems toward primary health care;
Third, protecting health, by strengthening the global architecture for health emergency preparedness and response;
Fourth, powering health, by harnessing science, research, innovation, data, digital technologies and partnership;
And fifth, performing for health, by building a stronger, more agile and sustainably financed WHO.
Let me focus for a few minutes on the fourth P, powering health, and particularly on innovation and partnership.
One silver lining of the pandemic was that it showed the world was able to come together to develop safe and effective vaccines, diagnostics and medicines in record time.
But the inequitable distribution of these life-saving tools cost lives and prolonged the pandemic.
Health for All means all: rich and poor, North and South, East and West.
Innovative, appropriate technological solutions must be used as part of our strategy to accelerate progress towards the health-related targets of the SDGs, universal health coverage and pandemic resilience.
Technologies that can be locally managed and supported are critical to health system resilience.
To address inequity in access to life-saving medical countermeasures like vaccines, WHO and partners established the mRNA technology transfer hub in South Africa.
It is currently transferring mRNA technology to 15 recipient countries around the world, supported by a biomanufacturing training hub in the Republic of Korea.
We are also establishing the mRNA research and development network to facilitate and accelerate product development and access to innovative technologies.
This is just one area of work in which WHO is seeking to foster innovation that serves to narrow inequities, rather than widening them.
We have also established an Innovation Hub, which seeks to identify technologies to address stubborn problems, especially in low-resource settings.
Working with a wide range of global health innovators, we support governments to access solutions that are fit for purpose, safe and reliable.
Digital health is another area of focus for us.
In 2019, WHO released the first evidence-based guidelines for the use of mobile phone-based digital strategies for health system strengthening, based on experiences gathered from around the world.
Today, we are supporting many countries to develop the building blocks needed for digital health transformation – enabling health systems to reach more people where they are.
In 2021 we also established the WHO Science Council, to advise me on key scientific issues.
Last year the Council produced its first report, on the current uses and future applications of genomic technologies for public health.
Of course, WHO does not act alone, and cannot do everything.
Effective partnerships are essential to leverage the strengths of different agencies, and use resources more efficiently.
One example is the Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All, which brings together 13 international agencies to harmonize their technical and financial support to better serve countries’ national priorities.
The catchphrase of the SDGs is to “leave no one behind”.
Our shared challenge is to make that more than slogan, but a reality in the lives of the people we serve.
WHO’s commitment is to harness the power of innovation, research, digital technologies and partnerships, based on the principles of equity and solidarity, to drive progress towards the SDGs, and a healthier, safer, fairer future, for all people.
Obrigado. I thank you.
Source: World Health Organization