- Your Excellency Sri Jagat Prakash Nadda, Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India
- Your Excellency Ms. Dr Elia Antonio de Araujo dos Reis Amaral, Minister of Health, Democratic Republic of Timor-
Leste and the Vice-Chairperson of the Regional Committee
- Your Excellency Mr. Lyonpo Tandin Wangchuk, Minister of Health, Government of Bhutan
- Your Excellency Mr. Pradip Paudel, Minister of Health and
Population, Government of Nepal
- Heads of Delegation from across the region
- Dr Razia Pendse, Chef de Cabinet, WHO HQ
- Delegates
- Partners
- Colleagues and Friends
Good morning and welcome to the Seventy-seventh
Session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia.
We are extremely pleased to be hosting you here in New Delhi, the home of our South-East Asia Regional Office.
Last year, I stood before you at this very meeting and laid out my vision for the future of the public health of the region.
I told you then that I addressed you as “a health practitioner, a trainer and educator, as well as a public policy specialist.”
Thanks to the mandate you have given me, a year later, I am here today to address you as Regional Director.
I am grateful that the vision that I laid out a year ago is the vision endorsed by our Member States.
These eleven partner countries, our Member States, have guided us to refine our vision. They have worked with us to forge from this, a tangible, practical roadmap to implement.
This vision, and this Regional Roadmap are not documents ‘owned’ by the South-East Asia Regional Office. They are not ‘owned’ by the Regional Director.
Instead, they belong to all our countries, and all our peoples.
These documents have been created, modified, refined and crafted by the representatives of a quarter of all humanity - by all of you.
This Regional Roadmap is now our guiding framework, and our countries have told us to implement it. It is incumbent upon us to do so, and that is exactly what we intend to do.
Seventy-six times before today, this Regional Committee has gathered like we have this morning.
Seventy-six times, the best of the public health community of our countries have gathered to discuss and debate, and ultimately agree upon how to protect our people from illness and infirmity.
It is because of the work they did, that today we lead longer and healthier lives than ever before.
In 1948, when the first Regional Committee for South-East Asia was formed, the infant mortality rate globally was around 147.
Today it is 25.
Then, the antibiotic age had just begun. Today, we are faced with antimicrobial resistance.
Think of how far we have come, and how far we still have to go.
And so, as we conquer old threats, we are faced with new ones. It is upon us to confront the perils of today, with the collective wisdom of all who came before us - and with the
tools of the 21st century.
This is why we are here today.
Yet, I will still ask - why are you here today?
Why are each of you, as individuals, here today to be a part of this session?
You are here because you have chosen a life of duty and public service - of a duty to your people, a calling to a cause greater than yourselves, and of a service to your nation.
Today, and every other day, that sense of service and duty calls on us to discuss and debate how to improve the health of our parents, our brothers and sisters, our children, and our neighbours.
We feel the duty to protect the weak and the vulnerable, the orphan child, the disabled, and the elderly with no family.
It is this sense of duty that has driven us to choose public health as our public service.
Much of the work that we do in our calling is unglamorous.
Public health is technical, and can be mundane.
But nothing is more glamorous than the success of our work.
A woman preparing to start a family, free of the worries of previous generations of mothers.
A new mother’s smile, as she holds her healthy baby.
A vaccinated child, free of the dangers that stalked his grandparents.
A young man unafraid to look to help, when his mind is his weak.
A father who becomes a grandfather, overcoming his inheritance of heart disease.
Today, we are imparting our calling in difficult times for many.
Parts of our world are at war.
The clouds of climate change get darker each day.
Violence and conflict displace the vulnerable.
Refugees live in fear and hopelessness.
In our own region, many of our own countries have seen these realities on their own soil.
Climate change and conflict, - crises, both manmade and natural - have combined to make our public service challenging at times.
Yet, no matter what your circumstance, no matter what your conditions, no matter what your reality - if your cause is improving the health of your people, I will stand by you.
The South-East Asia Regional Office will stand by you.
The World Health Organization will stand by you.
Remember, the best antidote for crises is cooperation.
It was 76 years ago almost to the day - on Monday, 4 October 1948 - that a conference convened in the office of India's Minister of Health, in this very city - New Delhi.
The purpose of the conference was to form the first Regional Committee for our region. In inaugurating this conference, Prime Minister Nehru of India, declared that the political conflicts of the world were caused mainly by fear.
Therefore, he said, the solution of political and economic problems could be assisted by greater international cooperation in matters like health.
Because, he said, there was no reason for any kind of conflict in matters like health.
As Pundit Nehru spoke, WHO was barely 6 months old. He said he welcomed the new organisation, not only for what it could achieve in health, but also because of the wider influence it could exert in fostering the friendship of nations.
Prime Minister Nehru’s speech was broadcast on the radio that day.
I hope, like me, you can hear its echoes in this room today.
I thank you all for choosing duty and answering the call to a greater cause than ourselves.
I thank you all for choosing public health as your public service.
I thank you.