IPU Secretary-General Martin Chungong,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
Dear colleagues and friends,
It is an honour to join you today.
The World Health Assembly is always the most important event in the WHO calendar. This year’s Assembly is especially significant.
As you know, our Member States are discussing how to move forward on negotiations on the Pandemic Agreement.
Once agreed – and I am confident it will be – the Agreement will go back to parliaments for consideration and ratification.
We seek your support for finalizing the Agreement, and for bringing it into effect, as soon as possible.
We also seek your support for countering the misinformation about the Agreement that has undermined the negotiations.
This agreement is being written by countries, for countries, and will be implemented by countries, in accordance with your own national laws.
The pandemic agreement will not give WHO any power to dictate policy to any country.
Yesterday, Member States also approved our 14th General Programme of Work – our global health strategy for the next four years, with a vision to promote, provide and protect the health of the world’s people.
We estimate that if fully funded and implemented, this strategy will contribute to saving 40 million lives over a four-year period.
On Sunday night, we launched WHO's first Investment Round, which aims to mobilize the predictable and flexible resources we need to implement the General Programme of Work.
The Investment Round will culminate in November with a major pledging event to be hosted by Brazil around the G20 Leaders’ Summit.
We seek the leadership of Member States, and your support as parliamentarians, in making this first investment round a success.
In this era of climate change, mass migration, pandemic threats, ageing populations, and turbulent geopolitics, sustainable funding is crucial to WHO’s being able to support our Member States.
Investment in WHO is catalytic by nature, meaning that funds invested in WHO are used to support Member States to make their own investments in improving the health of their populations.
In March this year, Martin and I signed a new Memorandum of Understanding between IPU and WHO, in which we agreed to work together on four priority issues: universal health coverage; health security; health promotion; and addressing inequalities.
These issues are perfectly aligned with our new General Programme of Work.
As Parliamentarians, you play a key role in translating the decisions that Member States make at the World Health Assembly into legislation and regulation that makes the vision to promote, provide and protect health a reality.
This year, around 40 parliamentarians are attending WHA. We hope this number will grow significantly in the coming years.
WHO is committed to facilitating regular dialogue with parliamentarians on pressing global health issues at the World Health Assembly and other international forums.
We also recognize that 2024 is a “super-election year”, during which almost half of the world’s population will cast its vote. It is critical that we work together to ensure that health remains a political priority for all governments, and all parliaments.
Thank you all for your commitment to health.
WHO remains committed to supporting every country, and every parliament, with the evidence, science and technical support you need to make the right to health not just a slogan, but a reality for your people.
I thank you.