Good morning and welcome to the Ministerial Roundtable of the Seventy-fourth Session of the Regional Committee.
I first want to thank His Excellency, the Hon’ble Minister of State, Nepal, for defining the focus of today’s deliberations: COVID-19 and measures to build back better essential health services to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In the months and years ahead, there is no greater imperative.
Strong health systems that are primary health care-oriented, and which leave no one behind, create populations that are healthier, more productive and financially secure. Resilient health systems are the bedrock of emergency preparedness and response, and ensure that when acute events occur, essential health services can be maintained.
We know this from experience.
For more than one and a half years, you have made tremendous efforts to maintain and strengthen essential health services, especially at the primary level – where most people’s health needs should be met, and where the foundations of health system resilience are built.
You have done so fully aware that disruptions to essential health services caused by an outbreak can be as deadly as the outbreak itself, and can significantly increase excess morbidity and mortality, particularly among vulnerable, marginalized and hard-to-reach groups.
And you have done so fully committed to protect, defend and advance progress towards the Region’s eight Flagship Priorities and the SDG targets, in line with our “Sustain. Accelerate. Innovate” vision, which amid the COVID-19 crisis, is more important than ever.
Throughout the response, all countries of the Region have allocated additional funds to maintain and strengthen essential health services, guided by national policies or plans, as well as the 10 pillars of WHO’s strategic preparedness and response plan.
All countries continue to implement the Region’s Declaration on the Collective Response to COVID-19, which was unanimously adopted at last year’s Regional Committee, and which specifically highlights the need to increase investments in UHC and primary health care to ensure equitable access for all, without financial barriers.
Despite real and ongoing challenges, your efforts have delivered strong, measurable progress.
In April, WHO published its second Pulse Survey on continuity of essential health services, covering January through March this year. Almost all Member States of the Region participated, with the South-East Asia Region achieving the highest response rate among all WHO regions.
By the end of the first quarter of 2021, the Region had reduced average disruptions to tracer health services by a remarkable 20% compared with the second quarter of 2020, May through July. Progress was achieved across all 35 tracer services.
Behind these numbers are real people with real stories.
Pregnant women who have accessed life-saving obstetric and emergency care.
Key populations who have accessed harm reduction and other preventive and promotive health resources.
Children who have accessed life-long protection against vaccine-preventable diseases.
Older persons who have accessed essential medical products to manage noncommunicable diseases.
Today, as we gather for this Ministerial Roundtable event, we are just four months shy of entering the third year of this pandemic – a sobering thought.
Together, we must close remaining gaps, and harness this historic opportunity to build back better health systems to accelerate progress towards UHC and the health-related SDGs.
Your deliberations are well focused.
Primary health care (PHC) is the only way forward. It has to be.
PHC services that are comprehensive, integrated across all levels of care, and which include all essential public health functions, achieve the highest possible level of health and well-being.
They can empower and engage individuals, families and communities, increasing social participation, self-care and self-reliance in health.
Strong PHC-oriented health systems are more efficient and cost-effective, reducing out-of-pocket costs, and addressing the social and economic determinants of health through multisectoral action.
Strong PHC-oriented health systems are essential to our ongoing efforts to prevent, prepare for, respond and recover from health emergencies, and achieve health security.
We all agree: Action cannot and must not wait.
“Build back better” must be more than a slogan. Rather, it must contain within it a set of actionable tools that policy makers at all levels and across sectors can leverage to drive immediate, near and long-term gains.
I look forward to coming deliberations, and to our shared success in grasping this opportunity – because as history shows, big crises can lead to big reforms.
Thank you.