Honourable ministers;
Representatives from Member States and partner agencies;
Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen:
Good afternoon and welcome to the sixty-ninth session of the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific. As always, it is good to see many old and new friends.
Congratulations to our Chair, Sir Puka Temo from PNG. Honourable Minister, I know you will do a very good job this week. Let me also welcome our Director-General, Dr Tedros, back to WPRO. Welcome, DG!
It has been a busy time since we met in Brisbane, Australia last October. As a Region, we continue to make good headway towards better health. A full account of progress over the last year can be found in the annual Report on the work of WHO in the Region.
However, today, instead of focusing on the last 12 months, as this will be my last Regional Committee meeting I would like to share with you some broader reflections on the last decade.
This time 10 years ago, the world was shaken by the global financial meltdown. The worst financial crisis in a century plunged many countries into recession – and greatly reduced their capacity to invest in health.
Our world has also changed in other ways. The MDGs have been replaced by the SDGs. The development landscape is ever more crowded and complex. And global geopolitics is increasingly volatile.
Yet against this backdrop of upheaval and change, the last decade has been one of progress towards better health in the Western Pacific Region.
Communicable diseases remain significant drivers of death and sickness in our Region, but together we have taken some huge strides forward in the battle to contain them.Tuberculosis incidence in the Region has declined significantly, and deaths from TB are down by almost 30 per cent. Most malaria-endemic countries are closer than ever to elimination.
This Region is home to four in every 10 people who lose their lives to viral hepatitis. However, sustained immunization of children over recent decades has helped us turn the tide on this disease: more than 40 million new hepatitis infections have been prevented, and approximately seven million lives have been saved. That is a huge achievement.
Every year we discuss noncommunicable diseases, which are now responsible for four out of every five premature deaths in the Region. There was a time when NCDs were seen as a problem affecting only wealthy developed nations. That is no longer the case: these killers are now taking a devastating toll on low and middle-income countries, too.
In this Region, high-level political commitment to addressing NCDs globally has translated into strong action by many Member States to tackle the all-important NCD risk factors – tobacco use, excessive consumption of alcohol, unhealthy diets, and lack of physical activity.
Countries have adopted higher taxes on unhealthy products, smoke-free laws, and stronger warning labels on tobacco packages. I am also very proud that this Region is home to the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging of tobacco products, Australia.
Our part of the world is a hotspot for health security threats. We are the most disaster prone Region, with 20 typhoons rising in the Pacific Ocean every year, as well as floods, earthquakes and tsunamis. Novel influenza viruses are common here. And as we saw with the MERS outbreak in my home country in 2015, even countries with advanced health systems are not immune.
Ten years ago, many of the tools we use today to detect and rapidly respond to health emergencies – such as Emergency Operations Centres and field epidemiologists – did not exist in most countries. That is not the case today. Countries are better prepared than ever before. Disease outbreaks and other health emergencies are inevitable, but we can minimize their devastating impacts through being prepared.
Health systems in the Region are, step by step, getting stronger. Several countries are making good progress in reducing out-of-pocket expenses. This is crucially important – because for the poor and vulnerable, a high out-of-pocket charge for a health service can mean a choice between receiving that health service, and other fundamentals like food for their family. That is no choice at all.
As well as reducing out-of-pockets, we are also gradually improving quality and access. There is growing political commitment at the highest levels to UHC. And despite economic constraints, governments are investing more in health: in the last decade, a majority of this Region’s Member States had increased their health spending as a share of gross domestic product. Long may this trend continue.
All of the progress I have just described is thanks to you, our Member States. For my part as Regional Director, I have simply sought to make WHO in the Western Pacific an organization which provides countries with the support that you need to progress towards better health.
Over the last ten years, we have worked hard to improve how we work. We re-organized the Regional Office, so it was better set up to deliver for our Member States.
Through revitalising our Country Cooperation Strategies, we strived to ensure that our country work properly reflects your priorities. And we have done our best to ensure that our Country Offices have the resources and capacity they need to serve you where it matters most, on the ground.
From my early travels in the Pacific, I quickly learnt that we had to do better to address the unique health needs of Pacific island countries and areas. As a result, one of the most important organizational changes we made, in 2010, was the establishment of the Division of Pacific Technical Support based in Fiji – to provide tailored technical support for Pacific countries, closer to home.
We created the Division of Health Security and Emergencies here in the Regional Office to strengthen our work with countries on emergency preparedness and response – years before the establishment of the global WHO Health Emergencies programme.
We have worked with Member States to improve governance – including adopting a more transparent and consultative process for setting the Regional Committee agenda. I believe that this has dramatically improved the quality of resolutions the Committee adopts – and the results that they deliver. When Member States in this Region set a target, it means something: we work together to get it done.
In making all of these changes, we have constantly strived to be more efficient, effective and accountable. We have also improved our communications. And we have strengthened our work with partners, such as the network of WHO Collaborating Centres across the Region.
I am especially pleased that we have forged much closer relationships with parliamentarians and city mayors. In a world where health threats come largely from outside the health system, strong partnerships with those who have the power to make decisions affecting all aspects of our lives, are more important now for WHO than ever before.
I am proud to say that I believe the last decade of our work together has made WHO in the Western Pacific better at delivering on the needs of people in the 37 countries and areas of the Region.
But of course, there will always be more to do.
We still face very significant current and future health challenges.
In many ways, the health threats we confront today are more complex than at any other time throughout history. Take climate change, for example. More than 2 million people die in this Region every year as a result of poor air quality. A huge threat to health, the solutions to which lie outside WHO’s traditional sphere of influence.
We face new forms of old threats – such as drug-resistant TB and malaria. Declining donor support also creates challenges for countries in sustaining the prevention, detection and response to infectious disease.
We must keep stepping up efforts to prevent NCDs, as well as improve management of these conditions – for those for whom prevention is already too late.
While we are better prepared for health emergencies, we cannot for a moment be complacent – at any moment, the next threat could be just around the corner.
And of course, we must continue our work to make health systems stronger and advance universal health coverage, including by strengthening primary health care.
On this, the long history of UHC shows us that the path of progress is not always linear. The journey will not always be easy – but the goal is clear: to ensure that everyone, in every corner of every country of this vast Region, has access to the quality health services they need at a price they can afford. Until this is the case, our work will never be done.
I would like to conclude my remarks today by telling you a brief story.
Earlier this year, I visited Lao PDR. While I was there, I met a young woman who had just given birth to her second child in a small village health clinic on the Mekong River. We spoke briefly about her newborn and her hopes for the baby’s future.
Since that visit, I have often wondered what the future holds for the tiny baby I saw that day. Will he grow up healthy and happy? Will he have a good life? And are we doing all we can to ensure that this is the case?
During my time as Regional Director, I have been fortunate to travel widely, and I have had hundreds of similar conversations with people across our Region. I have visited people in remote villages of the Mekong countries, and the grasslands of Mongolia – who wonder how they will get the health services they and their families need today, and tomorrow.
I have talked with communities in the Pacific worried about climate change, as sea levels rise around them and natural disasters strike with frightening frequency.
I have spent time with people whose countries are developing economically with unprecedented speed. They want to know how they can keep themselves and their families healthy and safe in the midst of constant change.
I am grateful for every one of these conversations, which have always helped me to focus on who we are here to serve: the almost 1.9 billion people who call the Western Pacific Region home.
Ten years ago, it was the greatest honour of my life to be elected to lead WHO’s work in the Western Pacific Region. This week you will decide on a new Regional Director. I sincerely wish my successor the very, very best.
While the next RD will face a vast range of challenges, he or she will inherit a strong and robust organization, and an extremely dedicated and hard-working staff.
My successor will also have the honour of working with a wonderful group of Member States – joined by a formidable bond of solidarity, and an unwavering commitment to delivering better health for all.
So finally let me say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to all Member States – for the trust you placed in me over the last ten years, and for your tremendous support during my time in this role. It has been my enormous privilege and pleasure to serve you.
Thank you.