Your Excellency João Lourenço, President of Angola and Chair of the African Union - it's beyond words, thank you so much for blessing us with your presence, I am very grateful, Your Excellency President, obrigado,
Your Excellency Andrej Plenković,
Your Excellency Liu Guozhong,
Excellencies, honourable ministers and heads of delegation, dear colleagues and friends,
My thanks to Farrah El-Dibany, Elaine Vidal and Eunice Miller, for sharing your voices – your gift – with us this morning.
My thanks also to all our youth delegates who have joined us today.
And my thanks to Member States for your historic adoption today of the WHO Pandemic Agreement.
One of the first major speeches I gave after my election as Director-General at this Assembly eight years ago was at an event at Columbia University in New York.
The subject I was asked to address was whether, 100 years since the 1918 influenza pandemic, the world was ready for the next one.
That pandemic erupted during the First World War, and although it killed more people than the war itself, it was quickly forgotten and its lessons went unheeded.
I said then that a devastating epidemic could start in any country at any time, and kill millions of people, because we are not prepared.
I said that global health security is only as strong as its weakest link, and that no one is safe until everyone is safe;
And I said that we do not know where or when the next global pandemic will occur, but we do know that it will exact a terrible toll, both on human life, and on the global economy.
The following year, 2018, at the World Government Summit in Dubai, I said the same thing again,
And I said it again in 2019, in an interview with TIME magazine.
Later that year, on the 31st of December 2019, I was at home with my family when I received a notification on my phone.
As the rest of the world was celebrating the dawning of a new year, WHO staff in Beijing and Geneva had picked up the first signal of cases of “viral pneumonia” in Wuhan.
The next day, the 1st of January 2020, when most of the world was on holiday, WHO was not.
Immediately, we activated our emergency incident management system and alerted the world, and within the first 10 days, we convened global experts and published comprehensive guidance for countries on how to protect their populations and health systems.
I’m proud of WHO’s response to the pandemic. And of course, we are not perfect – no-one is. But from the moment we received that first signal, and for the next three years, we did what WHO was created to do:
We acted fast, and we told the world what we knew, when we knew it,
We brought countries, experts and partners together to review rapidly evolving evidence and distil it into guidance on which governments, health workers and our partners relied;
We worked to give Member States the evidence, the advice and the tools to protect their people; And we did it all based on evidence, data and our values of equity and solidarity.
The COVID-19 pandemic turned our world upside down.
It stole at least 20 million of our sisters and brothers – and many of us in this room lost someone we know or love;
It took a terrible toll on health workers, who worked under extreme conditions, often without the equipment they needed;
It wiped more than 10 trillion U.S. dollars from the global economy;
It damaged or destroyed the livelihoods of countless people;
It pushed millions into poverty;
It interrupted the education of millions of students;
It took a heavy toll on the mental health of countless others, who suffered from fear of the disease, or the loneliness of isolation;
It gave rise to a torrent of mis- and disinformation that undermined trust in science and institutions – a trust deficit that remains to this day;
And it exacerbated political tensions, within and between nations.
Just over two years ago, I declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern.
The crisis has passed, but the scars remain.
Millions of people continue to suffer from the lingering effects of long-COVID;
And the social, economic and political aftershocks continue.
The pandemic has ended, but we still don’t know how it started.
Understanding how it did remains important, both as a scientific imperative, and as a moral imperative, for the sake of those who lost their lives.
We must not forget the painful lessons that COVID-19 taught us. We must learn from them. And together, that is what we have done, in 10 ways.
First, financing. COVID-19 showed us that financing for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response in lower-income countries was woefully inadequate.
So with the World Bank, WHO established the Pandemic Fund in 2022, to support capacity building in lower-income countries.
Already, 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.
Second, intelligence. The pandemic showed us the need for much stronger intelligence, to detect signals of outbreaks earlier, and enable a more rapid response.
That’s why, in 2021, we established the WHO Hub for Epidemic and Pandemic Intelligence in Berlin.
And we expanded the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources platform, which monitors millions of signals every year, and has tripled in scale to include 103 countries.
Third, local production. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that manufacturing capacity for vaccines and other medical countermeasures was concentrated in too few countries, and that we need much greater geographical diversification of production.
So, in 2021, we launched the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme, based in South Africa, which is now sharing technology with a network of 15 partner countries globally;
And we also established the Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative, including the Global Training Hub in the Republic of Korea, which has helped to train over 7000 participants in biomanufacturing.
Fourth, access. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vast inequities in access to vaccines, and showed the need for a mechanism to coordinate equitable sharing of vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other tools;
So in 2020, with a consortium of partners, we established the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and COVAX, which distributed almost two billion free doses of vaccine to 146 countries.
In lower-income countries, COVAX represented 75% of vaccine supply, saving an estimated 2.7 million lives.
Building on the lessons learned from ACT-A and COVAX, we established the interim Medical Countermeasures Network in 2023, which has helped to coordinate access to vaccines against mpox.
Fifth, supply chains. The pandemic highlighted gaps and inefficiencies in supply chains for lifesaving medical products in emergency situations.
So together with our partners, we expanded and optimized our supply chains, to ensure urgently needed supplies get to where they are needed – on time, every time.
Sixth, sample sharing. The pandemic highlighted the need for a mechanism that enables countries to share samples and sequences of pathogens, to facilitate research and development.
So, with the support of the Swiss Confederation, we established the BioHub, which is facilitating the sharing of pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential.
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.
Seventh, rapid deployment. The pandemic highlighted the need for an international system to coordinate the rapid deployment of experts to respond to emergencies nationally, regionally and globally;
So in 2023 we established the Global Health Emergency Corps, which just last month ran a two-day simulation called Exercise Polaris, with 350 experts from 15 countries.
Eighth, the IHR. COVID-19 exposed limitations in the International Health Regulations, so you negotiated and adopted a package of amendments to strengthen them.
Ninth, UHPR. It highlighted the need for increased accountability, so we created the Universal Health and Preparedness Review, a peer review mechanism.
And tenth, the pandemic showed us that pathogens don’t carry passports, viruses don’t need visas, and bugs don’t respect borders.
For everything that makes us different, we are one species, sharing the same planet, the same DNA and the same vulnerabilities.
A shared threat demands a shared response.
And so in 2021, you, the Member States made the historic decision to negotiate a new legally binding agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Last night, you approved it: 124 Member States voted in favour, and none against.
We recognize that 11 countries abstained, and we hope that all Member States will continue to work together to address the concerns that some of you have.
And this morning, you adopted it.
There are many people who have helped to bring us to this point – too many to name – but I would especially like to thank three people who first proposed and drove the idea:
His Excellency Kais Saied, the President of Tunisia, who proposed the idea in a phone call;
The late President of Chile, His Excellency Sebastián Piñera;
And His Excellency Charles Michel, former President of the European Council.
I also thank the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body who have guided us throughout this process: Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou of France, Precious Matsoso of South Africa, and former co-chair Roland Driece of the Netherlands.
I also thank our vice-chairs: Ambassador Tovar of Brazil, Ambassador Ramadan of Egypt, Dr Viroj of Thailand, Ms Fleur Davies of Australia, and our former vice-chairs Ambassador Ahmed Salama of Egypt, Ambassador Honsei Kozo of Japan and Mr Kazuho Taguchi, also of Japan.
And I thank my colleagues in the WHO Secretariat who have worked tirelessly to support this process over the past few years: my Deputy Director-General Dr Mike Ryan, Dr Jaouad Mahjour, and the many colleagues who supported them.
Over the past three and a half years, you have engaged in very tough negotiations.
Sometimes the disagreements were sharp, the discussions heated, and the frustration evident;
Sometimes it seemed the distance between you might be too great to overcome.
There were those who said you would not succeed, could not succeed, and who did not want you to succeed.
But you kept your eyes on the prize, and did not stop until you had achieved it. You didn't want to give up on this very important prize.
Step by step, you moved from red lines to green text;
From entrenched positions to landing zones;
And from contradiction to compromise, convergence and consensus.
You began your work in the middle of one crisis, and you have reached this milestone in the middle of another.
And today, we celebrate.
Today, you have sent a loud message that multilateralism not only works, but is the only way to find shared solutions to shared threats.
Let’s not understate what you have achieved: you have made the world a safer place;
By establishing a new system for sharing pathogens, vaccines and other tools;
By facilitating the transfer of technology, knowledge, skills and expertise;
By setting up a coordinating financial mechanism;
By establishing a global supply chain and logistics network;
By mobilizing a skilled, trained and multidisciplinary national and global health emergency workforce;
And much more. This is what the Pandemic Agreement will do.
But there is one thing it will not do:
It will not infringe on national sovereignty in any way, nor give the WHO Secretariat power to impose mask or vaccine mandates or lockdowns.
Anyone who says it will, is clearly mistaken.
You, the Member States, have made that very clear in the text of the Agreement itself.
You are all aware of the torrent of mis- and disinformation that we have faced through the negotiation of this Agreement.
And although you have now adopted it, deception and distortion will continue.
So we must be very clear about this:
The Pandemic Agreement has been negotiated by countries, for countries, and will be implemented in countries, in accordance with their own national laws. Nobody knows this more than you.
It doesn’t belong to me, or to my colleagues in the WHO Secretariat.
It belongs to you, the nations of the world, and to your people.
And of course, although today we celebrate reaching a major milestone, it is not the end of our journey. We have not yet reached our final destination.
In the coming weeks and months you will begin the process of negotiating the annex on the pathogen access and benefit sharing mechanism – PABS.
After that, the process of ratification will begin, before the Agreement finally enters into force.
There will still be hurdles to overcome.
But having seen the commitment that got you this far, I have every confidence that you will go the rest of the way.
Let me return to the question I was asked to address in that speech at Columbia University: is the world prepared for the next pandemic?
By the way, many people ask me this question now, are we prepared?
My answer: We can never be prepared enough. There’s always more we can do.
But are we better prepared now than we were when COVID-19 struck five years ago? My answer: Absolutely.
With this Agreement, we are better prepared for a pandemic than any generation in history.
And that's true. And all the ten things that that I have outlined earlier. While negotiating the Pandemic Agreement, we have been building the nine things. Because the world learned from the challenges of COVID. Failure will always be there. But the key is, have we learned out lessons? I think we did, and that's why we are doing the ten things. The most important being the tenth one, which is the Pandemic Agreement.
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Excellencies, honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends,
Since 1948, the nations of the world have gathered at the World Health Assembly to discuss common health threats, and to find a common path forward.
There have been many historic moments.
In 1969, the Assembly adopted the International Health Regulations;
In 1974, it approved the Expanded Programme on Immunization, that has saved millions of kids;
In 1980, it declared the eradication of smallpox;
In 1988, it adopted a resolution to eradicate polio;
In 2003, it adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which is saving lives as well;
And in 2021, at only the second Special Session of the Health Assembly, you decided to negotiate a new international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Your adoption this morning of the WHO Pandemic Agreement will rank among the most significant achievements in the history of this Organization, and of global health.
Those of us who were lucky enough to be in the room at 1:57 a.m. on the 16th of April, or in Committee A last night, or here this morning, will remember it for the rest of our lives.
We will all be proud to say, “I was there”.
But the point is not the words of the Agreement, on which you have spent so many hours discussing, debating and deciding.
The point is the people – the people of our world.
This is about making the world safer for them, and their children and grandchildren. For us, for our children and our grandchildren. Together.
Thank you for your determination to get this done. Many were sceptical, but you got it done, and this is through determination and commitment. And I have seen it: spending the whole night in a windowless auditorium in a basement. I was so moved when I saw you negotiating the whole night, from 9 to 9, nonstop. That moved me, and I could see the determination and commitment. That's why it happened.
Thank you for showing that in our troubled world, nations can still find a way to work together;
And thank you for the gift you have given the world today. A special gift on May 20th, 2025. That's your gift to the people of the world, the best gift.
Thank you so much.