Your Excellency Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados,
Your Excellency, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown,
Excellencies, Honourable Ministers,
and dear Farrah El-Dibany,
Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,
Good evening and thank you all for joining us for this historic moment – the launch of the first WHO Investment Round.
We all know that we live in a difficult time:
A time of multiple overlapping challenges:
Conflict, climate change, displacement, poverty, inequality, polarization;
And a time of outbreaks, and the increasing burden of noncommunicable diseases and mental health conditions.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was off-track for the health-related targets in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Now we’re even further behind.
We need a radical course correction.
At the World Health Assembly this week, WHO Member States will consider the Fourteenth General Programme of Work, an ambitious global health strategy for the next four years.
GPW14 is anchored in our mission to promote, provide and protect the health of the world’s people.
The budget for implementing GPW14 is US$ 11.1 billion, over four years.
We estimate that about US$ 4 billion will be secured through assessed contributions, if the planned increases to which Member States have committed continue.
The Investment Round aims to mobilize the other US$ 7 billion.
Let me put that into context for you.
Last year, the world spent US$ 717 billion on cigarettes – a product that causes suffering, disease, death and huge cost to health systems.
Over the four years of the GPW, we are asking for 24 cents for every US$ 100 spent on cigarettes.
In fact, US$ 7 billion is about the same amount that we would normally expect to mobilize over the same period.
Instead of waiting for it to come in over the course of four years – not knowing when it will come, or how much will come at any one time, the Investment Round aims to secure that funding up-front.
This will allow us to make longer-term plans and hire the people we need to implement those plans on more secure contracts.
The Investment Round is the fourth part of our long-term plan to transform the way WHO is financed, and in turn to transform our Organization.
First, we started to expand our donor base, by mobilizing new voluntary contributions;
Second, we established the WHO Foundation to expand and access new sources of funding, especially in the private sector;
And third, two years ago, Member States made a historic commitment to progressively increase assessed contributions to 50% of our base budget by 2030 – and the first increase has already happened. This as you know, was very historic. This is the first time Member States agreed to increase by 50%. The maximum they did in the past was only 3%. So, we are very grateful for the commitment of our Member States;
The Investment Round is the next step in this journey.
It’s about ensuring WHO is fully funded, and that the funding we receive is more flexible, predictable, and resilient.
We know that we are making this ask at a difficult time;
A time of competing priorities and limited resources.
But as the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, when health is at risk, everything is at risk.
Investments in WHO are therefore investments not only in healthier populations, but also in more equitable, more stable and more secure societies and economies.
I am deeply grateful to all Member States and donors for your investments in WHO, in whatever form they come – and especially to those who already make flexible and predictable contributions.
We count on your continued support to make the Investment Round a success, and to empower your WHO to fulfil the mandate that you, its Member States, established 76 years ago: the highest attainable standard health for all people, as a fundamental right.