HEALTH

Monday, 19 May 2025

Member States approve WHO Pandemic Agreement in World Health Assembly Committee, paving way for its formal adoption

Historic agreement to be considered for adoption Tuesday in plenary of the Assembly

19 May 2025

News release

Geneva

Reading time: 3 min (946 words)

World Health Organization Member States, meeting today in Committee A of the World Health Assembly, approved a resolution that calls for the adoption of an historic global compact to make the world safer from future pandemics. The WHO Pandemic Agreement will next be considered for final adoption by the Assembly on Tuesday during the plenary session.

Monday’s approval of the Pandemic Agreement resolution follows a more than three-year process, launched by governments during the COVID-19 pandemic, to negotiate the world’s first such accord to address the gaps and inequities in preventing, preparing for and responding to pandemics. This watershed agreement was adopted under Article 19 of the WHO Constitution. It aims to foster stronger collaboration and cooperation among countries, international organizations like WHO, civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders to prevent pandemics occurring in the first place, and to better respond in the event of a future pandemic crisis.

“Governments from all over the world are making their countries, and our interconnected global community, more equitable, healthier and safer from the threats posed by pathogens and viruses of pandemic potential,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “I congratulate WHO‘s Member States for resolving to come together in the aftermath of COVID-19 to better protect the world from future pandemics. Their work to develop this global accord will ensure countries work better, faster and more equitably together to prevent and respond to the next pandemic threat.”

The Pandemic Agreement and the resolution calling for its adoption will be taken up by the full plenary of the World Health Assembly on Tuesday, 20 May. Immediately after, there will be a High-Level segment featuring statements from Heads of States of multiple countries.

“The WHO Pandemic Agreement is a demonstration of the shared desire by all people to be better prepared to prevent and respond to the next pandemic, with a commitment to the principles of respect for human dignity, equity, solidarity and sovereignty, and basing public health decisions to control pandemics on the best available science and evidence,” said the Honorable Dr Esperance Luvindao, Minister of Health and Social Services of Namibia, and Chair of the Committee A meeting that adopted today’s resolution. “The costs that COVID inflicted on lives, livelihoods and economies were great and many, and we – as sovereign states – have resolved to join hands, as one world together, so we can protect our children, elders, frontline health workers and all others from the next pandemic. It is our duty and responsibility to humanity.”

The resolution sets out several steps for taking the world forward and preparing for the Pandemic Agreement’s implementation. It includes the launch of a process to draft and negotiate an annex to the Agreement that would establish a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system (PABS) through an Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG). The result of this process will be considered at next year’s World Health Assembly. Once the Assembly adopts the PABS annex, the Pandemic Agreement will then be open for signature and consideration of ratification, including by national legislative bodies. After 60 ratifications, the Agreement will enter into force.

In addition, Member States also directed the IGWG to initiate steps to enable setting up of the Coordinating Financial Mechanism for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, and the Global Supply Chain and Logistics Network (GSCL) to “enhance, facilitate, and work to remove barriers and ensure equitable, timely, rapid, safe, and affordable access to pandemic-related health products for countries in need during public health emergencies of international concern, including pandemic emergencies, and for prevention of such emergencies.”

According to the Agreement, pharmaceutical manufacturers participating in the PABS system will play a key role in equitable and timely access to pandemic-related health products by making available to WHO “rapid access targeting 20% of their real time production of safe, quality and effective vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics for the pathogen causing the pandemic emergency.” The distribution of these products to countries will be carried out on the basis of public health risk and need, with particular attention to the needs of developing countries and those supported through the GSCL.

The Pandemic Agreement aligns with the International Health Regulations, amendments to which were adopted by governments at last year’s World Health Assembly to bolster international rules to better detect, prevent and respond to outbreaks.

Dr Tedros thanked the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) that coordinated and facilitated the process to draft and negotiate the Pandemic Agreement. The WHO Director-General also praised the tireless work and excellence of the WHO Secretariat team that supported the Bureau and Member States, led by Dr Michael Ryan and Dr Jaouad Mahjour.

“An immensely talented, experienced and driven WHO team was assembled to support the vision of governments to develop this historic Pandemic Agreement,” Dr Tedros said. “This group of individuals, representing so many countries and regions of the world, deserve enormous credit and thanks from the international community for what they have done to help make the world safer for future generations.”

The INB was established in December 2021, at a special session of the World Health Assembly. WHO Member States were tasked to develop a convention, agreement or other international instrument under the WHO Constitution to strengthen pandemic preparedness, prevention and response. Members of the INB Bureau that guided the process were Co-Chairs Ms Precious Matsoso (South Africa) and Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou (France), and Vice-Chairs Ambassador Tovar da Silva Nunes (Brazil), Ambassador Amr Ramadan (Egypt), Dr Viroj Tangcharoensathien (Thailand); and Ms Fleur Davies (Australia). Past members included former Co-Chair, Mr Roland Driece (the Netherlands), and former Vice-Chairs Ambassador Honsei Kozo (Japan), Mr Kazuho Taguchi (Japan), and Mr Ahmed Soliman (Egypt).

HEALTH

Monday, 19 May 2025

WHO Director-General's High-Level Welcome at the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly – 19 May 2025

19 May 2025

Honourable President of the World Health Assembly, Secretary Teodoro Herbosa,

Federal Councillor of the Swiss Confederation Elisabeth Baume-Schneider,

Director-General of the United Nations in Geneva Tatiana Valovaya,

And I would also like to acknowledge the presence of my predecessor, former WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan,

Excellencies, honourable ministers and heads of delegation, dear colleagues and friends,

Mabuhay, and welcome to the 78^th World Health Assembly.

Every World Health Assembly is significant, but this year’s is especially so.

At this Assembly, Member States will consider, and hopefully adopt, the WHO Pandemic Agreement.

This is truly a historic moment.

Even in the middle of crisis, and in the face of significant opposition, you worked tirelessly, you never gave up, and you reached your goal.

When you finally reached consensus on the morning of the 16^th of April, after an intense night of negotiations – and I was honoured to be in the room to witness that, it was a mixture of emotions for all of us: joy, triumph, relief, exhaustion.

But that night, seeing your commitment, I was so moved. You made it.

I look forward to your adoption of the Agreement, and to celebrating that adoption with you at tomorrow’s high-level welcome.

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Excellencies,

It is an honour to deliver to you my report for 2024 – a year of significant challenges and significant achievements.

The Results Report for 2024 provides a more comprehensive account than I can provide today, and I commend it to you.

It shows how we are using your resources to achieve tangible results.

At this Assembly last year, Member States approved the 14^th General Programme of Work, with its three-fold mission to promote, provide and protect health.

Allow me, as I always do, to pick out a few highlights, according to each of those three priorities.

First, our mission to promote health and prevent disease, by addressing its root causes, in the air people breathe, the food they eat, the water they drink, the roads they use, and the conditions in which they live and work.

It’s now 20 years since the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control entered into force.

In that time, smoking prevalence has dropped by one-third globally, and there are 300 million fewer smokers today than there would have been had prevalence remained the same.

Every year, WHO supports more countries to implement evidence-based measures to fight tobacco.

Last year Côte d’Ivoire, Georgia, Lao PDR and Oman introduced plain packaging;

Viet Nam prohibited e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products;

And through our partnership in the Tobacco-Free Farms Initiative, we have supported more than 9000 tobacco farmers in Kenya and Zambia to shift away from growing tobacco to growing high-iron beans.

With WHO support, 15 countries increased taxes on unhealthy products last year, including tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks.

Five countries passed best practice policies on trans fat elimination: Colombia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Nepal and Qatar;

And today we will recognize four more countries for the same achievement: Austria, Norway, Oman and Singapore.

You know trans fat elimination and its impact on cardiovascular diseases. Congratulations to those countries.

Thirty-four countries have also joined the Acceleration Plan to stop obesity;

We published a new guideline on wasting, and we helped to secure multiyear funding for 15 high-burden countries, reaching more than nine million and saving an estimated one million lives.

In February this year, we co-hosted the Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Morocco, where countries made strong commitments, and I thank His Majesty the King and His Excellency the Head of Government for their strong leadership and support on this issue.

In March we also co-hosted the Global Conference on Air Pollution on Health in Colombia, and I likewise thank His Excellency President Gustavo Petro for his strong support and leadership on that issue.

If recommendations are implemented, I know we will make good progress.

WHO continues to support countries to address the causes of air pollution, mitigate its impacts, and build climate-friendly and climate-resilient health systems.

Together with GAVI and UNICEF, we are supporting the electrification of 1000 health facilities through solar systems in Ethiopia, Uganda, Pakistan and Zambia.

One thing I would like to remind you is that GAVI will have its replenishment in June in Brussels, and I urge you give your full support.

In Ukraine, we worked with partners to improve water, sanitation, hygiene and waste services at over 200 health facilities;

And we have now established a formal partnership with past, present, and future climate COP Presidencies to ensure health remains at the centre of future climate discussions.

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Now to the second pillar of our mission, to provide health by expanding equitable and affordable access to essential health services.

Through the UHC Partnership, we provided support to 36 countries last year to develop packages of services for universal health coverage, based on the foundation of strong primary health care, including eight countries with humanitarian crises.

We also supported 11 countries to analyse their health and labour market to shape national strategies and investment plans;

And last year we trained 15 000 health workers in more than 160 countries to address the physical and mental health needs of refugees and migrants.

In December last year I also had the honour of joining President Emmanuel Macron to open the WHO Academy in Lyon.

The WHO Academy will be a game-changer in terms of building capacity in countries by providing lifelong training, online and in-person, for health and care workers, policymakers, and the WHO workforce.

Just as we work to expand access to health services, so we are working to expand access to medicines and health products, and to strengthen regulatory authorities around the world.

Last year we designated 33 regulators as WHO Listed Authorities, which will significantly expedite WHO prequalification of medicines that have already been approved by one of these “regulators of reference”.

We also recognized Egypt, India, Rwanda, Senegal and Zimbabwe for achieving or maintaining maturity level 3 for regulatory oversight of medicines and vaccines;

We prequalified 126 medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and other products;

We gave Emergency Use Listing to two vaccines, for mpox and a variant of COVID-19;

We launched a new platform with information on more than 2500 types of medical devices;

And we selected 481 non-proprietary names for active pharmaceutical ingredients.

At the same time, we are working to protect precious medicines against the steady march of antimicrobial resistance.

Last year’s UN High-Level Meeting on AMR resulted in a commitment to reduce the number of AMR-related deaths by 10% by 2030;

And the Jeddah commitments will help to translate the political declaration into real-world action, and I thank the Minister and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the successful AMR meeting.

Over 170 countries now have national action plans on AMR, and more countries are adopting WHO’s recommendations.

Nepal, for example, has banned the use of antibiotic combinations that WHO classifies as not recommended.

Last year we also developed the first guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for manufacturing of antibiotics, and the AMR Industry Alliance updated its standard to align with WHO guidance.

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On maternal and child mortality, after substantial improvements during the MDG era, progress has largely stalled.

We continue to work with Member States to identify the barriers and to give them the tools to overcome them.

Over 50 countries have now developed acceleration plans to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and prevent stillbirths.

Last year, Tanzania opened 30 new care units for newborns, while Pakistan, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Malawi are also making progress.

To increase uptake of family planning practices, we developed a protocol to rapidly assess bottlenecks, which 27 countries are now implementing.

We also published new guidelines on neonatal sepsis childbirth pneumonia, and quality of care.

And we continue to support countries to catch up on routine immunization.

When the Expanded Programme on Immunization was launched in 1974, less than 5% of the world’s children were immunized. Today, that figure stands at 83%.

EPI has been the single biggest contributor to infant and child survival globally, preventing 154 million deaths – an average of 8000 a day for 50 years.

And we continue to support countries to introduce new vaccines to save lives.

Since the start of 2024, six new countries have introduced HPV vaccines;

Nine of Africa's most affected countries are preparing to rollout the new Men5CV meningitis vaccine;

And we have supported the delivery of more than 27 million doses of malaria vaccine in 20 countries in Africa.

Meanwhile, we are living in a golden age of disease elimination.

Last year, Cabo Verde and Egypt were certified as malaria free, and already this year Georgia has reached the same status. Congratulations to those countries.

We also confirmed seven countries for the elimination of neglected tropical diseases: Brazil, Chad, India, Jordan, Pakistan, Timor Leste and Viet Nam;

And so far this year, Guinea, Mauritania and Papua New Guinea have all been confirmed for the elimination of NTDs.

Last year, only 15 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported from just 12 villages in Chad and South Sudan.

I would like to acknowledge the strong personal commitment of the late President Jimmy Carter to Guinea worm eradication. Although he sadly did not live to see his dream achieved, his legacy will endure through the work of the Carter Center.

We validated Guinea for the elimination of maternal and neonatal tetanus;

And Brazil was re-validated for measles elimination.

Since the start of last year, we validated Belize, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis - congratulations;

We re-validated Armenia and Dominica for elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV;

Namibia for being on the path to elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and hepatitis B;

And this year we validated Botswana for becoming the first country to reach gold tier status on the path to elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

On HIV, 77% of people living with HIV globally are now accessing treatment, up from 69% in 2020, and 19 countries have achieved the 95-95-95 targets ahead of the 2025 deadline.

On hepatitis, last year we reached 38 focus countries with new simplified treatment guidelines for hepatitis B;

We supported 10 countries in Africa to introduce hepatitis B vaccination at birth;

And with the support of WHO, Pakistan launched the Prime Minister’s Programme for the Elimination of hepatitis C, aiming to screen more than 80 million people and treat almost 4 million - it's a very ambitious target.

On tuberculosis, WHO’s work is enabling more people to be treated with better medicines, tested with better diagnostics, and we’re supporting the development of better TB vaccines.

A pivotal phase 3 trial of the lead vaccine candidate has completed recruitment in record time, enrolling over 20 000 volunteers in South Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Indonesia. We await the results of what could be the first effective TB Vaccine in over 100 years.

In addition, treatment coverage for TB has now reached 75% globally for the first time;

And last year, we launched groundbreaking guidelines for shorter, fully oral, more effective regimens for people with drug-resistant TB, which have now been adopted in 109 countries.

On mental health, we supported countries to expand access to mental health services for 70 million people in nine countries, providing care to more than one million people.

We also provided life-saving medication for 2.1 million people with severe mental illness in conflict settings including Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia.

However, requests for medications for mental health have stopped almost completely in some countries, due to funding limits and competing priorities, leaving people with severe illness with no support, in the middle of crisis.

Through our partnership on childhood cancer with St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the U.S., we have begun distributing medicines free of charge in lower-income countries.

We aim to reach 12 000 children with cancer in 12 countries this year.

On cervical cancer, 155 Member States now have national guidelines on cervical screening, based on WHO guidelines.

On hypertension, more than 30 countries have now implemented the WHO HEARTS programme, reaching more than 12 million patients across 165 000 primary care facilities.

And just one year after its launch, WHO’s SPECS 2030 Initiative is supporting access to affordable eyeglasses in 16 countries, including to people in remote areas.

===

Now to the third pillar of our mission, supporting countries to protect health by preventing and responding rapidly to health emergencies.

In 2024, WHO coordinated the response to 51 graded emergencies in 89 countries: outbreaks, natural disasters, conflicts and more.

We deployed and delivered urgently needed specialist medical supplies worth US$ 196 million to 80 countries;

We deployed 89 emergency medical teams;

Supported more than 67 outbreak response deployments;

And much more. Thank you so much for your support to the Contingency Fund for Emergencies. That really helped in those interventions.

We helped to bring cholera outbreaks under control in 27 of 33 affected countries, leaving only six in an acute phase;

With WHO support, Rwanda and Tanzania stopped outbreaks of Marburg virus disease;

And Uganda stopped an outbreak of Ebola, including a vaccine trial that began within four days of the outbreak.

As you know, in August last year I declared a public health emergency of international concern over the outbreaks of mpox in the DRC and other countries in Africa.

In response, WHO gave Emergency Use Listing to the first mpox vaccines and tests, and helped to coordinate donations of six million vaccine doses across 15 countries.

Meanwhile, 2024 was a year of mixed news for the other public health emergency of international concern – polio.

We helped to stop an outbreak of wild poliovirus in Africa, but the number of cases detected in Pakistan and Afghanistan rose from 12 in 2024 to 99 last year. Ten cases have been reported so far this year.

In response to a resurgence of polio in Gaza, WHO negotiated a humanitarian pause for a vaccination campaign that reached more than 560 000 children.

We stopped polio, but the people of Gaza continue to face multiple other threats.

Two months into the latest blockade, two million people are starving, while 116 000 tonnes of food is blocked at the border just minutes away.

The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid, including food, in the ongoing blockade.

Increasing hostilities, evacuation orders, shrinking humanitarian space and the aid blockade are driving an influx of casualties to a health system that is already on its knees.

People are dying from preventable diseases as medicines wait at the border, while attacks on hospitals deny people care, and deter them from seeking it.

Since November 2023, WHO has supported medical evacuations of more than 7300 patients, including 617 cancer patients.

We thank St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the European Union for their support and partnership in making these evacuations possible.

However, more than 10,000 patients still need medical evacuation out of Gaza.

We ask Member States to accept more patients, and we ask Israel to allow these evacuations, and to allow urgently needed food and medicine to enter Gaza.

WHO stands ready, with our UN partners, to move rapidly to deliver it, if and when it is allowed to enter.

In Sudan, an estimated 32 000 people have been killed, 30% of the population is displaced and 20 million people need humanitarian aid.

I visited Sudan in September, where I saw the effects of the civil war and met people who are paying the price.

The following week I was in Chad, where I travelled to the border town of Adré and met some of the 900 000 Sudanese refugees who have fled, seeking security and food.

And they are just a fraction of the 122 million people globally who have been forced to flee their homes.

In Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere, we continue to see attacks on health care, which are becoming a “new normal” of conflict.

Last year we verified more than 1500 attacks on health care in 15 countries and territories, killing more than 900 people.

In every country, the best medicine is peace, and a political solution. I hope peace will prevail that can transcend generations. War is not the solution. Peace is the solution.

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In response to the lessons learned from COVID-19 and other health emergencies, WHO is supporting countries to strengthen their capacities through the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Framework.

We are supporting countries to strengthen their capacities in genomic surveillance, and every day, we scan the world for public health threats through the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources platform.

Last year, we assessed more than 15 million potential signals from 13 thousand sources;

The Pandemic Fund has provided US$ 885 million in grants, catalyzing an additional US$ 6 billion in co-financing, supporting 47 projects across 75 countries.

Through the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, the International Pathogen Surveillance Network now connects 350 organizations in 100 countries. You know the Berlin Hub is a product of the lessons learned from COVID-19;

And the Research and Development Blueprint for Epidemics and Pandemics is managing Collaborative Open Research Consortia for 12 families of pathogens, involving over 5000 scientists to drive R&D and identify gaps in countermeasures.

I would especially like to acknowledge the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil – Fiocruz, which is leading one of those consortia.

I thank Fiocruz for its partnership and offer my warm congratulations on its 125^th anniversary. Feliz aniversário Fiocruz.

The mRNA Technology Transfer Programme, based in South Africa, is now sharing technology with a network of 15 partner countries globally;

The Global Training Hub in the Republic of Korea has helped to train over 7000 participants in biomanufacturing;

The BioHub is facilitating sharing of samples; All of these, as well, are based on the lessons learned during COVID-19.

And just last month the Global Health Emergency Corps ran a two-day simulation called Exercise Polaris, with 350 experts from 15 countries to test capacities for deploying and connecting health expertise during health emergencies.

Through the OpenWHO platform, more than nine million people accessed learning, supporting the response to 26 outbreaks.

At this Assembly last year, Member States adopted a package of amendments to the International Health Regulations, and WHO is supporting countries to prepare for their entry into force in September this year 2025.

We are also supporting voluntary national and global peer reviews of preparedness through the Universal Health and Preparedness Review.

Last year we supported 19 Joint External Evaluations, 28 after-action reviews, and 34 simulation exercises. For the first time, we have 195 countries reporting on their IHR capacities through the States Parties Annual Report, the SPAR. So based on the COVID lessons, there are significant changes that are happening, and we need to continue to push.

In addition to these general preparedness activities, we’re also supporting countries to prepare for specific threats, including Ebola.

With Gavi, we vaccinated 150,000 health workers in six countries against Ebola, the first time this has happened outside of an outbreak response, to prevent any future outbreak.

We also supported the vaccination of 65 million people against Yellow Fever in four countries;

And through the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System, GISRS, more than 12 million samples were collected and tested, and 50 000 samples were shared with WHO Influenza Collaborating Centers.

We recommended nine new zoonotic candidate vaccine viruses, available globally to manufacturers to produce vaccines in case of an influenza pandemic. As we have agreed, preparation is continuous. That's why.

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Honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends,

All of this work to promote, provide and protect health is supported by our efforts at all three levels of the Organization on the fourth and fifth Ps of GPW14: to power and perform for health, through science, digital technologies, data and our ongoing Transformation.

Last year, we conducted a review of our Transformation, to see what has worked, and what has not.

Based on the review, we have reprioritised Transformation and aligned it with the priorities of the GPW14.

One of the successes of Transformation has been our increased focus on science, data and digital health. And this is the future of the Organization.

WHO’s normative, standard-setting work is its bread and butter, and we have streamlined processes to give Member States the highest quality, evidence-based advice as fast as possible.

Last year there were 65 million downloads of WHO publications, guidance, and other materials.

We launched important new guidelines on avian influenza, artificial intelligence, clinical trials, tobacco cessation, Mpox, and so much more.

Starting this year, we are aligning our guidelines and normative work with prequalification, meaning we will prequalify a product and issue guidelines on how to use it at the same time.

The first product under this new process will be lenacapavir, an exciting new medicine for the treatment and prevention of HIV.

Although a true HIV vaccine remains elusive, lenacapavir is the next best thing: an injectable antiretroviral taken every six months that has been shown to prevent almost all HIV infections in those at risk.

We expect to conclude both the guideline and prequalification processes this year, which will support the subsequent rollout of this product.

Another success of Transformation has been our increased focus on digital health. Over the past five years, WHO has supported almost 75% of Member States to develop strategies to harness digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, to strengthen their health systems.

WHO hosts the Global Digital Health Certification Network, which last year enabled the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Indonesia and Malaysia to issue 250 000 international patient summaries for 2024 Hajj pilgrims, supporting emergency care for 78% of scanned records. Many more countries are joining this year.

The Network now covers 82 countries, benefiting nearly two billion people. I thank the EU for its continued support for this work.

Another key element of our transformation has been our focus on data.

Every country in the world now accesses the World Health Data Hub, which is a secure and standardized pathway to increased transparency, accountability, and progress.

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Honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends,

I hope that we have many achievements to celebrate, but we also know that many countries face significant challenges.

Many ministers have told me that sudden and steep cuts to bilateral aid are causing severe disruption in their countries, and imperilling the health of millions of people.

In at least 70 countries, patients are missing out on treatments, health facilities have closed, health workers have lost their jobs, and people face increased out-of-pocket health spending.

Although this is a challenge, many countries also see this as an opportunity to leave behind the era of aid dependency and accelerate the transition to sustainable self-reliance, based on domestic resources.

We are doing our best to support countries to make that transition.

And yet, at precisely the time that Member States need a strong WHO, it is being challenged.

Although our current situation is difficult, it should not be a surprise to any of us.

It is a situation many years in the making, and one that we saw coming.

When we began the WHO Transformation eight years ago = as soon as I started my tenure as Director-General - one of the main problems we set out to address was WHO’s over-reliance on earmarked, voluntary funding from a handful of traditional donors.

We have implemented several measures to alleviate that problem, with your support over the past five years.

We published the first Investment Case, established the WHO Foundation, conducted the first Investment Round, and three years ago, the Health Assembly took an historic decision to increase assessed contributions progressively to 50% of the base budget. This is the highest increase in the history of this Organization. Thank you for your confidence and for that historic decision in 2022.

This week, I ask you to approve the next increase, to make another step towards securing the long-term financial sustainability and independence of your WHO.

Already, the first increase has made a huge difference.

If it had not happened, our current financial situation would be much worse – US$ 300 million worse.

Even so, we are facing a salary gap for the next biennium of more than US$ 500 million.

The Secretariat has taken a range of measures to curtail costs in travel, procurement, recruitment, early retirement and more.

These measures have helped to narrow the gap, but still, there is no alternative but to reduce the size of our workforce.

We are doing this reduction carefully, to protect the quality of our work, and ensure that we are positioned to emerge from this crisis stronger, more empowered and more independent.

As you know, we have been engaging in a major structural realignment, guided by an in-depth analysis of priorities, deliberate and conscious.

The prioritization exercise has informed the development of a new streamlined structure for headquarters, which reduces the executive management team from 14 to 7, and the number of departments from 76 to 34. Some Member States called the new structure "lean and mean". I think it's more focused and it could be more impactful as well.

Last week I announced our new executive management team, and in the coming weeks, we will decide which directors will lead which departments.

This was an extremely difficult decision for me – as it is for every manager in our Organization who is having to decide who stays, and who goes.

I wish to place on record my deep gratitude to the outgoing members of our executive management team:

Dr Mike Ryan, Dr Samira Asma, Dr Bruce Aylward, Dr Catharina Boehme, Dr Li Ailan and Dr Jérôme Salomon.

Each of them has served the Organization, and the people of the world, with distinction and dedication.

I ask you to join me in thanking them for their contribution.

Excellencies,

Let’s be clear: a reduced workforce means a reduced scope of work.

The Organization simply cannot do everything Member States have asked it to do with the resources available.

This week, you will consider a reduced programme budget of US$ 4.2 billion for the 2026-2027 biennium.

This represents a 21% reduction on the original proposed budget of US$ 5.3 billion.

Assuming you approve the increase in assessed contributions, and thanks to the Investment Round, we are confident that we have already secured more than US$ 2.6 billion, or 60 percent of the funding for the next biennium.

That leaves an anticipated budget gap of more than US$ 1.7 billion.

We know that in the current landscape, mobilizing that sum will be a challenge.

We are not naïve to that challenge, but for an organization working on the ground in 150 countries, with the vast mission and mandate that Member States have given us, US$ 4.2 billion for two years – or 2.1 billion a year – is not ambitious, it’s extremely modest. I hope you will agree with me, and I will tell you why:

US$ 2.1 billion is the equivalent of global military expenditure every eight hours;

US$ 2.1 billion is the price of one stealth bomber - to kill people;

US$ 2.1 billion is one-quarter of what the tobacco industry spends on advertising and promotion every single year. And again, a product that kills people.

It seems somebody switched the price tags on what is truly valuable in our world.

At the Munich Security Conference in February – I’m a regular attender since I became a foreign minister in 2012. At that conference, a foreign minister spoke to me about the large increases in defence spending announced by some countries. Many countries are doubling or tripling their defence spending, and everybody knows this – billions or trillions of dollars.

“We have to prepare for the worst,” he said.

I said, “I understand, but what about preparing for an attack from an invisible enemy? Because you are only considering the tanks that may roll over your borders or the drones that may come overhead? How about the invisible enemy. The COVID-19 pandemic killed an estimated 20 million people and wiped more than US$ 10 trillion from the global economy.”

I don't think you remember any war in recent memory that killed 20 million people.

Countries spend vast sums protecting themselves against attacks from other countries, but relatively little on protecting themselves from an invisible enemy that can cause far more damage.

If we think US$ 2.1 billion a year is ambitious – or 4.2 billion for the biennium – then either we must lower our ambitions for what WHO is and does, or we must raise the money.

I know which I will choose, and I hope you will choose the same.

On that note, I remind you of tomorrow’s Investment Round event, and we look forward to seeing new pledges from Member States and philanthropic donors.

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Honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends,

In 1951, the newly-born WHO was already being buffeted by the prevailing geopolitical winds of its time – just as it is today.

In her opening address, the Acting President of the World Health Assembly that year, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, the first Minister of Health of India, and the first woman to preside at this Assembly, said this:

“The dark clouds that overshadow our skies today can – and must – be dispelled by the fulfilment on our part of the pledge to serve one another. Our work is surely a precious heritage which we may not forsake, and a positive factor for overcoming the root causes of conflict.”

Today, and this week, I ask you to remember those words.

We are here to serve not our own interests, but the eight billion people of our world;

To leave a heritage for those who come after us; for our children and our grandchildren;

And to work together for a healthier, more peaceful and more equitable world. It's possible.

Our current crisis is an opportunity to do just that, and together, we will do it.

I thank you.

HEALTH

Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures – On World Health Day WHO calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza

07 April 2025, Jerusalem, Cairo, Geneva - On World Health Day, with the theme “Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures,” the Gaza Strip continues to be one of the most dangerous places to be a child and where pregnancy is clouded by fear due to ongoing violence, displacement and lack of medical access.

Between 18 March and 4 April 2025, since the resumption of hostilities, reportedly more than 500 children and 270 women have been killed. No aid has entered Gaza since 2 March, deepening the hunger and malnutrition crisis, leaving families without clean water, shelter, and adequate health care, and increasing the risk of disease and death.

An estimated 55 000 women are pregnant in Gaza, with one third facing high-risk pregnancies. Around 130 babies are born each day, 27% by caesarean. Approximately 20% of newborns are pre-term, underweight, or born with complications, needing advanced care that is rapidly diminishing.

The fragile health system is overwhelmed by the influx of casualties, including among children. Essential medicines, trauma and medical supplies are rapidly running out, threatening to reverse hard-won progress rehabilitating hospitals and keeping them operational. Evacuation orders and attacks on health further restrict access to health care and risk closure of hospitals and medical facilities.

Due to the aid blockade, WHO’s supplies for maternal and child health, including for cesarean sections, anesthesia for delivery and pain management, intravenous fluids, antibiotics, and surgical sutures, are critically low. Blood units needed for complicated deliveries are in extremely short supply. Partners report that essential equipment and medicines, such as portable incubators, ventilators for neonatal intensive care, ultrasound machines, and oxygen pumps, along with 180 000 doses of routine childhood vaccines — enough to fully protect 60 000 children under the age of two — have not been permitted to enter, leaving ill newborns and young children without the life-saving care they urgently need.

The food shortage is deepening the crisis and threatens to reverse the progress made in food security during the ceasefire. Mothers and children are hit hard. A recent Nutrition Cluster analysis found that between 10 to 20% of 4500 surveyed pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished. The closure of 21 outpatient malnutrition treatment sites, due to insecurity or evacuation orders, has disrupted life-saving care for over 350 acutely malnourished children and has severely limited the ability to detect and treat new cases.

Despite security risks and access restrictions severely hampering WHO’s response, efforts to support health facilities and strengthen maternal and child health services continue amid dwindling supplies. Focus is on the delivery of essential medicines, equipment, and supplies, training of health workers, and deploying emergency medical teams to enable safe deliveries and care for sick children.

WHO urgently calls for the lifting of the aid blockade, the protection of health care, unimpeded humanitarian access across Gaza, the immediate resumption of daily medical evacuations, release of hostages, and a ceasefire that paves the way for lasting peace.

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the 156th session of the Executive Board – 3 February 2025

https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-156th-session-of-the-executive-board-3-february-2025

Good morning, happy New Year, and welcome once again to your WHO headquarters.

As you know, for me 2024 ended with a narrow escape in Yemen, when the airport in Sana’a was attacked while I was there, waiting for my flight home.

I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each of you who reached out with calls and messages of support. Your kindness provided comfort during such a frightening moment. I wanted to express my gratitude to you and also, I thank God for sparing me.

I was fortunate, but it was reminder of the threat that so many people live with every day in dangerous situations around the world, including many of my WHO colleagues, and humanitarians at large.

For them, and for WHO as a whole, 2024 was a year of significant challenges.

It was also a year of significant milestones.

At the World Health Assembly in May, Member States approved our new global health strategy, the 14th General Programme of Work, with an ambitious target to save 40 million lives over the next four years.

You also approved a historic package of amendments to the International Health Regulations;

And you agreed to conclude negotiations on the WHO Pandemic Agreement in time for the next World Health Assembly.

In November, we also concluded the first WHO Investment Round, which helped to mobilize half of the resources we need to implement GPW14 over the next four years;

And in December I joined President Macron to officially open the WHO Academy in Lyon, France – a major step towards making WHO an organization that delivers an impact in countries.

There were also many achievements to celebrate in our threefold mission to promote, provide and protect health.

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First, our mission to promote health and prevent disease, by addressing its root causes.

As you know, noncommunicable diseases account for seven of the top 10 causes of death globally, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease.

One of WHO’s key focuses is addressing the risk factors for NCDs in the food people eat; the air they breathe; the roads they use; and the products they consume, including tobacco – the world’s leading cause of preventable death.

This month marks the 20^th anniversary of the entering into force of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Over the past two decades, thanks to the WHO FCTC and the MPOWER technical package that supports it, smoking prevalence has dropped by one-third globally.

Last year, Georgia, Lao PDR and Oman introduced plain packaging on tobacco products;

With WHO support, Viet Nam prohibited e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products;

And through our partnership in the Tobacco-Free Farms Initiative, we have supported more than 9000 tobacco farmers in Kenya and Zambia to shift away from growing tobacco to growing high-iron beans.

Another key focus is addressing the drivers of disease in the diets people eat.

In 2024, Lebanon, Mauritius and Nepal passed best practice policies on trans fat elimination;

Thirty-four countries have now joined the Acceleration Plan to stop obesity, representing one-third of the global population with obesity;

We published a new guideline on wasting, and supported 14 countries with the highest burden to implement it.

We’re also seeing progress in preventing deaths and injuries from drowning, road traffic crashes and violence;

We’re integrating behavioural science into more areas of our work;

And we continue to support countries to build climate-friendly and climate resilient health systems.

We have mobilized US$ 150 million to support low- and middle-income countries to protect the health of their people from climate risks;

And at COP29 in Azerbaijan, we signed an agreement to keep health at the heart of climate negotiations.

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Second, our mission to provide health, by expanding equitable access to health services.

As you know, more than half the world’s population lacks access to one or more essential health services.

And two billion people face financial hardship by paying for care out of their own pockets.

To address these gaps, we’re working through the UHC Partnership to support 125 countries in all six regions on the road towards universal health coverage.

Last year we provided support to 28 countries to develop packages of services for universal health coverage, including eight countries with humanitarian crises.

And we are supporting countries to expand health services to refugees and migrants.

Ireland and Panama integrated refugee and migrant health into national healthcare plans;

Uganda provided a comprehensive health package to 1.6 million refugees;

And Colombia issued health insurance cards to 1.5 million migrants.

Just as we work to expand access to health services, so we are working to expand access to medicines and health products, and to strengthen regulatory authorities around the world.

We recognized Egypt, India, Rwanda, Senegal and Zimbabwe for achieving or maintaining maturity level 3 for regulatory oversight of medicines and vaccines.

And we designated 33 regulators as WHO Listed Authorities, making them “regulators of reference” that meet internationally recognized standards and practices.

We have now listed 36 regulators since we launched the programme three years ago.

In 2024 we prequalified 87 medicines and other products, and performed more than 150 inspections of manufacturing sites.

We launched a new platform with information on 2000 types of medical devices, which countries are using to select devices for health interventions, procurement or national reference lists.

We issued five alerts on substandard and falsified medicines;

And we selected 481 nonproprietary names for active pharmaceutical ingredients.

The International Nonproprietary Name programme is one of those things that WHO does that no one else can do, and that very few people know about, but is relevant to all countries.

Standardized names for pharmaceutical ingredients are absolutely essential for patient safety, global trade, tracking and tracing medicines, combating counterfeits, increasing access, research and more.

It’s not glamorous, but someone has to do it, and that someone is WHO.

And it is helping to increase access to lifesaving tools, including vaccines.

On antimicrobial resistance, the UN High-Level Meeting on AMR resulted in strong commitments and targets.

The number of countries reporting data on antimicrobial use to WHO has tripled from 36 in 2021 to 98 in 2024;

And countries are adopting our AWaRe recommendations on antibiotics: Nepal, for example, has banned the use of antibiotic combinations that WHO classifies as not recommended.

We also supported full implementation of surveillance for antimicrobial resistant gonorrhoea in 13 countries.

In Cambodia, implementing WHO guidelines reduced gonorrhoea treatment failure from 11% to zero.

We also developed the first guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for manufacturing of antibiotics.

Already we have trained inspectors in 52 Member States, and the AMR Industry Alliance updated its standard to align with WHO guidance.

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Last year, we celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the Expanded Programme on Immunization.

When EPI was launched in 1974, less than 5% of the world’s children were immunized. Today, that figure stands at 83%.

EPI has been the single biggest contributor to infant and child survival globally, preventing 154 million deaths – an average of 8,000 a day for 50 years.

And we continue to support countries to introduce new vaccines to save lives.

In 2024, four new countries introduced HPV vaccines;

Niger and Nigeria became the first countries to implement the new Men5CV vaccine, a meningitis vaccine;

We prequalified a new vaccine against dengue;

And we supported the rollout of more than 12 million doses of malaria vaccine in 17 countries in Africa.

Meanwhile, we are living in a golden age of disease elimination, with more and more countries liberating their people from malaria, trachoma, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, and more.

Last year we certified seven countries for the elimination of neglected tropical diseases: Brazil, Chad, India, Jordan, Pakistan, Timor Leste and Viet Nam;

And just last week, we certified Guinea for the elimination of human African trypanosomiasis, and Niger for the elimination of onchocerciasis.

Last year, only 11 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported from just eight villages in Chad and South Sudan.

Ghana approved a new treatment for river blindness, which was developed through two decades of collaboration between TDR, researchers, WHO country offices, and Medicines Development for Global Health.

We also certified Cabo Verde and Egypt as malaria free, and already this year Georgia has reached the same status;

Belize, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines were validated for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis;

And we validated Namibia for being on the path to elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and hepatitis B.

For the first time, TB treatment coverage has now reached 75% globally, 79 countries have achieved at least a 20% reduction in incidence, and 43 countries have achieved at least a 35% reduction in TB deaths.

And on mental health, we’re working with UNICEF in 13 countries in all six regions, reaching 270,000 children, adolescents and caregivers with care services.

On maternal and child mortality, progress is less encouraging.

After substantial improvements during the MDG era, progress has stalled.

We continue to work with Member States to identify the barriers and to give them the tools to overcome them.

For example, to increase uptake of family planning practices we developed a protocol to rapidly assess bottlenecks, which 27 countries are now implementing.

We published a new guideline on neonatal sepsis, and we’re supporting countries to implement it.

And we launched a new guideline on midwifery models of care, which has been shown in a study in Ethiopia to reduce emergency caesarean sections, preterm birth rates and admissions to neonatal intensive care.

Over 40 countries have developed acceleration plans to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and prevent stillbirths.

Tanzania opened 30 new care units for newborns, while Pakistan, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Malawi are also making progress.

We have come a long way on maternal and child mortality, but we still have a long way to go to reach the SDG targets.

For World Health Day this year, we have chosen maternal health as our theme, to draw attention to the need for all countries and partners to work together and prevent these preventable deaths.

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Now to the third pillar of our mission, supporting countries to protect health by preventing and responding rapidly to health emergencies.

In 2024, we responded to 50 graded emergencies around the world: conflicts, outbreaks, natural disasters and more.

This included delivering US$ 48 million worth of supplies to 78 countries.

We helped to bring cholera outbreaks under control in 27 of 33 affected countries, leaving only six in an acute phase;

With WHO support, Rwanda controlled an outbreak of Marburg virus disease;

As we speak, we are responding to outbreaks of Marburg in Tanzania and Ebola in Uganda, where Deputy Director-General Mike Ryan has travelled to oversee the response;

And as you know, in August last year I declared a public health emergency of international concern over the outbreaks of mpox in the DRC and other countries in Africa.

Although the number of reported cases has been stabilizing in DRC, the worsening security situation has led to many patients leaving treatment centres, increasing the risks of transmission.

In response to the outbreak, WHO gave Emergency Use Listing to the first mpox vaccines and tests, and established an Access and Allocation Mechanism, which coordinated donations of six million vaccine doses across 15 countries.

About 500,000 doses have been delivered, and a further 1.7 million doses will soon be available. We also provided supplies to laboratories in 136 countries to quality-assure their capacity for diagnosing mpox.

About 70,000 people have been vaccinated, mainly in DRC. Resource limitations in the affected countries, which face multiple competing health priorities, have limited the speed and scale of vaccination.

The other main part of WHO’s emergency response work last year was responding to conflicts and insecurity in Gaza, Haiti, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere.

We are very pleased to see that the ceasefire agreement in Gaza is holding, and we very much hope it becomes a lasting peace.

Our priorities are to meet acute health needs, support the operation of hospitals and primary care facilities, and transport patients within and out of Gaza for specialised care.

Since the ceasefire began, WHO has sent 63 trucks with supplies, and 30 more should arrive in the coming days.

We provide 60% of all the medical supplies, and 100% of the fuel for hospitals and Emergency Medical Team facilities.

In total during the conflict, we coordinated the deployment of 52 emergency medical teams from 26 organizations, which conducted over 2.4 million medical consultations, performed more than 36,000 emergency surgeries, and treated almost 86,000 trauma cases.

And together with our partners, we negotiated a humanitarian pause and prevented a resurgence of polio by vaccinating more than 550,000 children.

We can only hope that 2025 also brings an end to the conflicts in Sudan and Ukraine.

In Sudan, an estimated 32,000 people have been killed, 30% of the population is displaced and 20 million people need humanitarian aid.

I visited Sudan in September, where I saw the effects of the civil war and met people who are paying the price.

The following week I was in Chad, where I travelled to the border town of Adré and met some of the 900,000 Sudanese refugees who have fled, seeking security and food.

And they are just a fraction of the 122 million people globally who have been forced to flee their homes.

In Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere, we continue to see attacks on health care, which are becoming a “new normal” of conflict.

Last year we verified more than 1500 attacks on health care in 15 countries and territories, with 932 deaths and 1767 injuries.

It’s frustrating that almost no one is ever held to account for these violations of international law.

So with our partners we launched a new report last year with nine recommendations for bringing to account those who perpetrate attacks on health care. We urge Member States to implement these recommendations.

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Of course, responding to emergencies is just one part of our work. In response to the lessons learned from COVID-19, WHO has strengthened its work in every dimension of emergency prevention, preparedness and response.

Every day, we scan the world for public health threats.

Last year, we assessed more than 1.2 million potential signals;

And through the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, we are supporting countries to strengthen their capacities in genomic surveillance.

The International Pathogen Surveillance Network, established in 2023, now includes 230 organizations in 85 countries;

We supported 19 countries to complete Joint External Evaluations, with another 21 scheduled for this year.

And three countries completed pilot studies of the Universal Health and Preparedness Review.

In addition to these general preparedness activities, we’re also supporting countries to prepare for specific threats, including Ebola.

Ebola outbreaks are often fuelled by nosocomial transmission, so with Gavi, we vaccinated 150,000 health workers in six countries against Ebola, the first time this has happened outside of an outbreak response, to prevent any future outbreak.

We also supported the vaccination of 53 million people against Yellow Fever in five countries;

And we have monitored carefully the concerning spread of avian influenza among dairy cattle in the United States.

Through the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System, GISRS, we facilitated sharing of more than 100 zoonotic flu samples with WHO Collaborating Centres last year, and uploaded 525 avian influenza genetic sequences to publicly available databases.

And we recommended nine new zoonotic candidate vaccine viruses, available globally to manufacturers to produce vaccines in case of an influenza pandemic.

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Honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends,

All of this work to promote, provide and protect health is supported by our efforts at all three levels of the Organization on the fourth and fifth Ps of GPW14: to power and perform for health, through science, digital technologies, data and our ongoing Transformation.

Last year, we conducted a review of our Transformation, to see what has worked, and what has not.

Based on the review, we have reprioritised Transformation and aligned it with the priorities of GPW14.

One of the successes of Transformation has been the establishment of the Science Division.

WHO’s normative, standard-setting work is its bread and butter, and the Science Division is helping us make sure we give Member States the highest quality, evidence-based advice as fast as possible.

Last year there were 65 million downloads of WHO publications, guidance, and other materials.

We launched important new guidelines on avian influenza, artificial intelligence, tobacco cessation, Mpox diagnostics, and so much more.

Starting this year, we are aligning our guidelines and normative work with prequalification, meaning we will prequalify a product and issue guidelines on how to use it at the same time.

This will speed up equitable access to proven interventions and increase investments from the public and private sectors, as the systems will become more transparent and predictable, completed within a 12-month period.

The first product under this new process will be lenacapavir, an exciting new medicine for the treatment and prevention of HIV.

Although a true HIV vaccine remains elusive, lenacapavir is the nearest thing we have to it: a new injectable antiretroviral taken every six months that has been shown to prevent almost all HIV infections in those at risk.

We have initiated the guideline and prequalification processes in parallel, which will support the rapid rollout of this product, which we expect in the first half of this year.

Another success of Transformation has been our increased focus on digital health, which will underpin health systems in every country in the very near future.

Last year, the Global Digital Health Certification Network enabled Oman, Indonesia, and Malaysia to issue 250,000 international patient summaries for 2024 Hajj pilgrims, supporting emergency care for 78% of scanned records.

The Network now covers 82 countries, benefiting nearly two billion people. And I thank the EU for their support in this.

Another key element of our transformation has been our focus on data.

We created the World Health Data Hub to make health data available to anyone, anytime, using digital technologies including artificial intelligence.

Every country in the world now accesses the Hub, which is a secure and standardized pathway to increased transparency, accountability, and progress.

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Honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends,

As you know, two weeks ago, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order announcing his intention to withdraw the United States from WHO.

We regret the decision, and we hope the US will reconsider. We would welcome constructive dialogue to preserve and strengthen the historic relationship between WHO and the USA that helped bring significant impacts like the eradication of smallpox - I can give you a long list.

The Executive Order gave four reasons for the decision to withdraw from WHO.

First, it says that WHO has “failed to adopt urgently needed reforms”.

As this Board is aware, over the course of the past seven years, under the guidance and governance of Member States, WHO has implemented the deepest and most wide-ranging reforms in the Organization’s history.

The WHO Transformation has touched every part of our work: our strategy, operating model, processes, partnerships, financing, workforce and culture.

We have also taken action on the recommendations of the Agile Member States Task Group;

We have implemented 85 of the 97 reforms proposed in the Secretariat Implementation Plan on reform;

And we are implementing the recommendations of the Action for Results Group, led by WHO Representatives, to strengthen our country offices.

For us, change is a constant, and that's what our Member States told us when we started the reform, "change is a constant". We believe in continuous improvement, and we would welcome suggestions from the United States and all Member States for how we can serve you and the people of the world better. So, although we are doing a lot of reform, additional is welcome.

Second, the order says that WHO “demands unfairly onerous payments from the US, out of proportion with what other countries contribute”.

Member States understand how assessed contributions are calculated, and you know that some countries choose to make higher voluntary contributions than others.

Addressing the imbalance between assessed and voluntary contributions, and reducing WHO’s over-reliance on a handful of traditional donors, has been one of the major areas of our Transformation. Because when we started the Transformation, the reliance on a few traditional donors was identified as a risk. And we have decided then, seven years ago, to broaden the donor base.

Last week the PBAC recommended the next 20% increase in assessed contributions, and we ask this Board to endorse that recommendation.

This is a critical element of our long-term plan to broaden our donor base, and will over the long term reduce the burden of financing for traditional donors, including the U.S.

We therefore continue to seek the support and engagement of all Member States, including the U.S., for our shared vision to put WHO on a more sustainable financial footing.

Third, the order refers to WHO’s alleged “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global health crises”.

Last week marked five years since I declared a public health emergency of international concern, on the 30^th of January 2020. At the time, outside of China there were fewer than 100 reported cases, and no reported deaths.

On New Year’s Eve 2019 and New Year’s Day 2020, when much of the world was on holiday, WHO was not.

From the moment we picked up the first signals of “viral pneumonia” in Wuhan, we asked for more information, activated our emergency incident management system, alerted the world, convened global experts, and published comprehensive guidance for countries on how to protect their populations and health systems – all before the first death from this new disease was reported in China on the 11th of January 2020.

Of course there would be challenges and weakness, and there have been multiple independent reviews of the global response to COVID-19, with more than 300 recommendations to address the challenges or the weaknesses.

In response to those recommendations, WHO and our Member States have taken many steps to strengthen global health security: the Pandemic Fund; the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence; the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub; the Global Training Hub for Biomanufacturing; the Global Health Emergency Corps; the interim Medical Countermeasures Network, and more. So, all of this has been established based on the lessons learned.

And as I mentioned earlier, Member States have committed to concluding negotiations on the Pandemic Agreement in time for this year’s World Health Assembly.

Finally, the Executive Order says WHO has an “inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence” of our Member States.

As a UN agency, WHO is impartial and exists to serve all countries and all people.

Our Member States ask us for many things, and we always try to help as much as we can.

But when what they ask is not supported by scientific evidence, or is contrary to our mission to support global health, we say no, politely. And you have seen me doing that many times.

As Member States know, that is what we have done on several occasions to countries of all income levels, in all regions.

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Honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends,

Even before the US announcement, WHO was facing a shortfall due to the economic difficulties that many countries are facing.

For many months, the Regional Directors and I, with the support of senior management, had been working with twin strategic goals: to mobilize new resources; and to tighten our belts.

The U.S. announcement has made the situation more acute, and we have announced a set of measures with immediate effect to protect our work and workforce to the greatest extent possible:

We are conducting a strategic alignment of resources with activities;

We are freezing recruitment, except in the most critical areas;

We are significantly reducing travel expenditure;

And we are looking to renegotiate major procurement contracts and reduce capital investments.

More measures will be announced in due course.

Our main objective is to protect our most important asset: our people – the dedicated, talented professionals who today are working around the world to help the people we serve to breathe cleaner air, eat healthier diets, drink safer water and use safer roads;

They are working to help people get the safe, quality health services and products they need, where and when they need them, without worrying about what it will cost;

And they are working to stop outbreaks and deliver lifesaving care in the most difficult and dangerous situations.

In short, they are committed to promoting, providing and protecting health.

I am proud to call them my colleagues.

And together, we remain committed to the vision that you, our Member States had almost 77 years ago:

The highest attainable standard of health – not as a luxury for some, but a right for all.

I thank you.

USTIN, Texas — On Tuesday Mayor Kirk Watson and Travis County Judge Andy Brown joined Austin Public Health, Austin-Travis County EMS, and community partners to share an update on a one-time, $2 million federally funded initiative to combat the opioid crisis. The initiative, supported by Congressman Lloyd Doggett through congressionally directed spending administered through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), has contributed to a reduction in overdose deaths and improved access to life-saving information and resources across Austin and Travis County.

“Having previously secured federal funds to assist in addressing this serious public health concern in Travis County, I remain committed to partnering with local leaders and organizations to advocate for every resource we can secure to overcome this epidemic,” said Congressman Lloyd Doggett. “When we bring all hands-on deck, at every level, we can continue to support recovery and save lives. At present, however, the biggest threat to substance abuse treatment are the outrageous Medicaid cuts being advanced in Congress. An ugly detail of the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill” is that 16 million Americans will lose access to a family physician and other vital health care services.”

“Last year, we promised to put this funding to work in a way that saves lives,” said Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. “I’m proud to say we delivered. Thanks to strong partnerships and focused efforts, we’re no longer just reacting to a crisis—we’re building a system that prevents it.”

Highlights of the initiative:

Over 24,000 doses of naloxone distributed across Austin and Travis County.
More than 1,100 people trained to respond to overdoses through the “Breathe Now” training program.
Overdose deaths in Austin are now declining—a key indicator of the program’s success.

“This decrease is just the beginning. Together we’re building a stronger foundation rooted in compassion, data and a commitment to ensuring every member of our community has access to the resources they need to survive and thrive,” said Travis County Judge Andy Brown.

Much of the initiatives’ success can be attributed to the work of community partners whose experience and established networks enabled immediate, impactful work.

“This once-in-a-lifetime funding opportunity has saved lives and made an impact in our fight against this epidemic,” said Austin-Travis County Health Authority Dr. Desmar Walkes. “While there is still

much to be done, the groundwork that was laid in the past year has made our community more resilient and united in the mission to prevent overdose deaths.”

“Our paramedics see the impact of opioids every day, and we’ve made it our mission to turn those moments of crisis into opportunities for connection and care," said ATCEMS Chief Robert Luckritz. "Through our Community Health Paramedics and Opiate Use Disorder Support Program, we’re not just responding to overdoses, we’re building relationships, offering resources, and helping people take the first steps toward recovery.”

Boots on the ground

The Texas Harm Reduction Alliance (THRA) hired peer coaching staff who met with more than 100 clients, most of whom made progress on their goals or remained engaged. Staff also provided group trainings to Travis County Correctional Complex reaching hundreds of individuals and conducted hundreds of assessments for people leaving incarceration into homelessness. The THRA was also able to provide 431 linkages to health care, social services and treatment services.

Communities for Recovery provided peer support to more than 50 people, 80% of whom showed measurable progress towards their goals. Staff also led more than 200 groups and activities reaching 2,000+ attendees

Supporting healthcare professionals

The University of Texas at Austin Pharmacy Addition Research Medicine Program (UT PhARM) developed education courses to support healthcare professionals who care for patients with Opioid Use Disorder. Five hundred and ninety-seven providers received this training, and a majority of the participants said they felt more comfortable as they provided care to their patients and intended on increasing their incorporation of harm reduction principles into practice.

Getting the word out

As resources become more widely available it’s crucial to ensure that the community is aware. The University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Health Communication developed the “In Austin, We Keep Each Other Safe” media campaign created focused messaging for people who use drugs (PWUD) and provided concrete, actionable steps for harm reduction. The campaign delivered 56 million impressions across various forms of media, and the campaign’s website saw over 58,000 visitors.

Learn to Spot and Prevent Opioid Overdose

Experts recommend everyone learn these important ways to spot and prevent opioid overdoses:

Don’t use any drug alone or behind a locked door.
If you have naloxone, let everyone, including fellow drug users, know, just in case.
Signs of overdose include small pupils, decreased responsiveness/mental status and slow to no breathing.
If you find someone who has signs of an overdose, even if you are not sure, use naloxone and start basic life support to resuscitate them. Call 911 since fatal opioids usually last longer than intranasal naloxone (about 90 minutes) and a person who has overdosed will need continuing care.

To learn more about how you can recognize and prevent opioid overdoses, please visit stopoverdoseatx.org.