Hon’ble Deputy Minister of Health, Maldives; Ministry officials; Development and implementation partners; Members of academia; Expert Group members; WHO colleagues,
Good morning and welcome to this three-day virtual meeting on operationalizing the South-East Asia Regional Strategy for Primary Health Care.
I first want to thank countries and partners for the tremendous support you have provided to WHO over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Throughout the response, you have contributed human, financial, technical, logistical, and diplomatic resources to advance the objectives identified in our Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, which continue to include maintaining essential health services and strengthening health system resilience.
Your support has been indispensable and is truly appreciated.
In the months ahead, it will continue to be critical to our shared efforts to end the acute phase of the pandemic, including by vaccinating at least 70% of all eligible populations by mid-2022.
And it will continue to be critical to our efforts to begin building back better to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), health security and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals – the focus of a landmark resolution adopted at the Seventy-fourth session of the Regional Committee.
To give impetus to this objective, in December WHO launched its South-East Asia Regional Strategy for Primary Health Care (PHC), which prioritizes seven values and 12 interrelated strategic actions.
Together, these values and actions are designed to help countries build strong PHC-oriented health systems that achieve the two core components of Health for All – UHC and health security.
While the PHC approach is the only approach which can deliver these twin objectives, the path to building strong PHC-oriented health systems is somewhat more flexible.
And so it should be.
Countries of the Region are diverse in culture, demography, geography, history and levels of socioeconomic development.
They span political and administrative contexts, ranging from federal and highly decentralized systems, to more centralized forms of administration.
They are at different stages of health sector-related institutional development, which has consequences for the management, financing, capacity, and delivery of PHC services.
And in each, the role of the public sector in the provision of social services, including health and education, varies considerably.
We all agree: There is no one-size-fits-all solution to achieving Health for All, and each country will embark on its mission from a different starting point.
But as the Regional Strategy highlights, we must proceed with coherence, based on a shared vision and commitment to address each of the 12 interrelated interventions, which I take this opportunity to highlight.
First, reviewing and updating health-related national policies and plans to reflect PHC orientation, ensuring that externally financed interventions and support are appropriately harmonized.
Second, increasing and improving PHC financing, which means not only mobilizing and pooling additional resources, but prioritizing resource allocations within health sector budgets and ensuring value for money.
Third, implementing governance reforms and enabling multi-sectoral convergence, especially for action on the social determinants of health.
Fourth, reimagining and reorganizing PHC service delivery, for example by developing policies, strategies and service standards that support a continuum of care across programme areas, and by integrating traditional and complementary systems of medicine into PHC.
Fifth, building a culture of wellness and promoting well-being, with a focus on strengthening community-based capacities to implement wellness interventions
Sixth, ensuring community engagement and empowerment, including by enabling community participation in local health service governance structures and enhancing the role of community health workers.
Seventh, strengthening the availability, competence and performance of multi-disciplinary PHC workforce teams, with increased focus on improving the distribution of workforce teams at the district and subdistrict levels.
Eighth, promoting the availability and affordability of quality essential medical products for PHC.
Ninth, strengthening the quality of PHC services, for which ongoing monitoring is essential, alongside implementation of grievance redressal mechanisms.
Tenth, leveraging the potential of digital technology to improve access to and quality of PHC services, with full recognition that publicly accessible and transparent data are a public good.
Eleventh, strengthening health information systems to enhance PHC, including by instituting or expanding surveys to capture PHC parameters, and improving civil registration and vital statistics systems.
And twelfth, institutionalizing learning systems for sustainable PHC, for which deep and enduring institutional partnerships will continue to be key.
In each of these areas, we must continue to be guided by the values of universality, equity, solidarity, accountability, people-centredness, resilience and adaptiveness, and evidence-driven action.
We must continue to sustain and accelerate progress towards our targets and goals, harnessing the full power of key innovations catalysed by the COVID-19 response.
In coming sessions, we will hear from Member States on context-specific priorities at the national and sub-national levels to reorient health systems towards strong primary health care.
We will hear of how WHO and partners can support such priorities and actions, ensuring our efforts are coherent, efficient and effective.
I urge you to fully contribute to the first of this series of meetings, and I look very much forward to being apprised of the outcomes.
I wish you an engaging and productive meeting and reiterate my ongoing and unmitigated support.
Thank you.