- Carla Paredes, Minister of Health, Honduras
- Diplomats, Dignitaries and Representatives of the EU, France, Luxembourg, Canada, Belgium and the UK
- Partners from GAVI and the Global Fund
- Assistant Director General Jerome Solomon,
- Assistant Director General Ailan Li
- Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward
- WHO Assistant Regional Director for Africa
- WHO Deputy Director, Special Programme for Primary Health Care
- Colleagues and Friends
- A good afternoon to you
- A little more than three years ago, at the 74th Regional Committee meeting of the WHO South-East Region, while emerging from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ministers of Health in WHO’s South-East Asia Region committed to seize “a once-in-a-century opportunity to advance transformation towards resilient PHC-oriented health systems as a means to achieve population health, well-being, and prosperity in the SEA Region”.
- I am pleased and proud to let you know that our countries have followed these policy commitments with action
- Some of the examples of the tangible actions taken by our Member States are:
- India has operationalized over 165,000 Health and Wellness Centers, to provide a comprehensive array of services at primary level - including establishing a new cadre of mid-level workers and building their capacity
- Indonesia launched National PHC Integration as first pillar of health system transformation, with ongoing national scale-up
- Maldives piloted the Faafu Atoll PHC Demonstration Site, which is now being expanded across more atolls
- Sri Lanka is undertaking shared care cluster reforms to strengthen PHC orientation of the health system
- Thailand piloted “Treatment anywhere”, enabling greater convenience and choice of health care for the population – and is currently in process of scaling up nationally
- Timor Leste developed the Integrated Health Service Policy, and in process of its operationalization
- Bangladesh's community clinic program is an innovative model of primary healthcare, particularly in rural and underserved areas
- As you can see, our countries are matching words with actions
- At the regional level, we have recently launched our South-East Asia Regional Roadmap for Strengthening Results and Resilience.
- Aligned with GPW 14, co-developed and endorsed by our Member States, the Regional Roadmap proposes five tactical shifts. I believe these are worth emphasizing, as it is directly relevant to your discussion over the last three days:
- The first tactical shift is to a Holistic and comprehensive approach which prioritizes a broad span of health services, while also addressing social, economic and environmental determinants of health.
- The second shift is a prioritization of Equity, prioritizing those most vulnerable and marginalized. – with not only access to health services, but to quality health services.
- The third tactical shift is Innovation. There is great potential to leverage advancements in technologies such as digital technologies and AI, and innovations in policy and local solutions, to address local priorities and realities.
- The fourth tactical shift is Sustainability. Capacity building and associated knowledge management are at the core of sustainable health systems. This is especially important when we speak of Primary Health Care, where knowledge often exists far from centers of policy and research. The example of the South-East Asia Regional PHC Forum is noteworthy.
- Finally, the 5th tactical shift is WHO’s role as an Enabler. Central to this is mobilizing partnerships across governments, development, philanthropic, implementation, academic, private and civil society actors.
- I am pleased to learn that these same shift shifts have been discussed over the course of the last three days, with focus on ‘Taking Stock’, ‘Adapting’ and ‘Propelling’ accelerated actions towards UHC.
- I would especially like to take this opportunity to the emphasize the importance of the UHC Partnership to take forward this vision. The UHC Partnership through flexible and bottom-up health system support, tailored to country needs, with placement of health policy advisors, has been critical to a wide gamut of work across all countries which have received such support. I am especially aware of work in the SEARO where UHC P support has been fundamental to health system support and transformation at sub-national, national and regional levels.
- For this, I would like to sincerely thank all the partners who have contributed to the UHC Partnership or are considering doing so - the European Union, Luxembourg, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Netherlands, and Ireland. On behalf of WHO SEARO and our Member States, I’d like to express how much we value both the Health Systems focus and modality of support from the UHC Partnership.
Together we can deliver the Goal of UHC, Health SDGs and Health for All.
Together we can shift focus from diseases to - in the words of one of WHO’s founders Dr. Karl Evang - the “human being – the working, creating, hoping and struggling human being.”