Colleagues, a very good morning / afternoon to you all.
I am delighted to be hosting this Retreat-cum-Meeting of our South-East Asia Region’s WHO Representatives, the first of my tenure as Regional Director.
I know I do not need to remind anyone in this room that our Member States are our topmost priority.
In the preceding months, before assuming my duties as RD, I deliberated on my manifesto and took it to our Member States for their feedback and for their consent.
We stand here today because of the overwhelming mandate they have given us to turn this manifesto into reality.
It is incumbent on each of us to work together to implement this mandate for them.
The agenda of this two-day meeting has been prepared in consultation with WRs and RO. I would like these sessions to be agile and productive, and I would like to show our Member States the way forward for us, and for our Region, for the duration of my tenure.
We have two main agendas for this retreat:
First, our draft Regional Roadmap, and second, deliberating on new ways of working.
Regional Roadmap
Our ‘Regional Roadmap for Resilience and Results’ is called ‘R4.’ This is its current working title.
R4 is currently a draft roadmap, and we look forward to your collective input to refine and improve it.
We want R4 to be a comprehensive strategic framework that leverages WHO SEARO coordinated contributions to support governments and partners in addressing key demands and priorities in the Region.
R4 should be a ‘tactical strategy,’ and should be a catalyst for sustainable changes - particularly in achieving agreed health targets, such as health-related SDGs, and improved health systems at the country-level which are people-centered and equitable.
R4 also needs to manifest and enhance the values of our Organization, with the weight of our comparative strengths. We are the only inter-governmental agency which provides leadership for health, and we have the power to convene and collaborate using our social and intellectual assets.
We will discuss the individual components of R4 that will help us achieve, with our Member States, the results we all want.
I look forward to working with you to further the public health agenda in countries and using the R4 framework across our Region to make a difference.
New Ways of Working
Next, I’d like to talk about ‘new ways of working.’
I would like us to discuss how to improve WHO support to our countries, by rethinking our ways of working to achieve our public health targets.
We will deliberate on newer and improved ways of working in certain identified areas, including:
- Regional Meetings
- Knowledge & Experience Exchanges
- Mechanisms of providing technical support to our Member States
It is important that we broadcast and showcase the best-practices from our Region, so that we may be a model in those respects for our colleagues in other Regions.
Dr. Soren, our colleague from HQ, is the Senior Advisor for Organizational Change. He will brief us on updates to the WHO’s global transformational agenda, so that our thinking, our plans, and our actions can align with these organizational changes.
We will also share updates on the ‘Implementation of the Action for Results Group’ (ARG) action.
This will include the status and challenges of Core Predictable Country Presence, followed by implementation and compliance of Delegation of Authority which is, of course, closer to your day-to-day work.
Finally, we will hear an update on the Investment Round, Resource Mobilization and Partnerships at the country level - which is going to be a landmark event for the WHO as an organization. This is also a priority for me as the Regional Director.
Thank you all for being here. Thank you for your commitment to the cause of public health. Thank you for your dedication to our Countries, to our Region and to our Organization.
We have a lot of work to do, and I know that we will be proud of all we achieve together in the next five years.
Thank you.