Geneva (UNA-OIC) – The World Health Organization (WHO) held the 147th session of its Executive Board on Monday in Geneva, where WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reviewed his three new initiatives to further strengthen both national capacities and Organization’s efforts to support them.
In his opening remarks, Tedros thanked the Executive Board members for their work in preparing for and executing a very successful virtual World Health Assembly (WHA) last week.
“Together we have shown that with the aid of modern technologies, the work of the organization can continue even in the most extreme circumstances,” he said.
“The Assembly adopted important resolutions on emergency preparedness, meningitis, neglected tropical diseases, epilepsy and other neurological disorders, immunization, cervical cancer, tuberculosis, healthy aging, innovation and intellectual property, eye care and food safety – and declared 2021 the International Year of the Health Worker,” the WHO chief noted.
“As you know, I also announced three new initiatives to further strengthen both national capacities and WHO’s efforts to support them,” he said.
The initiatives include the Universal Health and Preparedness Review, the Council on the Economics of Health for All, and the idea of a new “biobank” for sharing pathogens and clinical samples, Tedros said, pointing out that the WHO is currently developing each of these concepts and will shortly be sharing more information about how member states can engage with them.
“Although the pandemic has been a setback to our collective efforts to attain the “triple billion” targets and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we in the Secretariat remain completely committed to supporting member states to get back on track,” he said.
The new results framework, which was noted by the Assembly, and the “triple billion” dashboard will be important tools for keeping ourselves accountable.
The Director-General described last week’s announcements about COVID-19 vaccines as encouraging news. He also said commitments to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator have now reached more than $5 billion, thanks to new contributions from France, Spain, the Republic of Korea, the European Commission and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced at the Paris Peace Forum.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we knew that a vaccine would be essential for bringing the pandemic under control, which is why WHO proposed the ACT Accelerator,” he noted, emphasizing the importance that “a vaccine will complement the other tools we have, not replace them”.
“A vaccine on its own will not end the pandemic. Initially, supply will be limited, so health workers, older people and other at-risk populations will be prioritized,” the WHO chief asserted, expressing hope that this would reduce the number of deaths and enable health systems to cope.
