Chairperson, the Honourable Minister Park Neunghoo
Honourable ministers
Professor Hiro Nakatani, Chair of the WHO Executive Board, and members of the Executive Board Bureau
Representatives from Member States and partner agencies
Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning! And welcome to the 70th session of the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific. I would like to extend my warm welcome to all of you, especially the new Ministers joining us for the first time.
Congratulations to our Chair, Honourable Minister Park from the Republic of Korea. Minister, thank you for taking on this role this week – I know as Minister for Health, you have many other competing commitments. We really appreciate your support for and commitment to WHO.
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It is an incredible honour to be standing here this morning as the seventh Regional Director for the Western Pacific, and at my first Regional Committee in this role.
The Regional Director’s report that you have before you today is unique, in that it spans the terms of two Regional Directors. Therefore I would like to begin my speech by reporting on the last part of the former Regional Director, Dr Shin Young-soo’s term, and paying tribute to his leadership and legacy.
In the last year, three more countries and areas eliminated lymphatic filariasis: Palau, Viet Nam, and Wallis and Futuna, and Malaysia became the first country in the Region to be certified as having eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis. In the last decade, we saw some of the steepest declines of any Region in the numbers of people becoming sick and dying from communicable diseases, and in mothers and babies dying at birth.
Today we can celebrate two more countries which have been recognised as achieving important disease elimination goals: Kiribati for eliminating lymphatic filariasis, and China for confirming its elimination of trachoma. My sincere congratulations to these countries for your achievements.
Last year, WHO supported several countries in responding to disease outbreaks and natural disasters. We are now much better prepared to face these kinds of health security threats compared to ten years ago.
While we still have a long way to go in the fight against NCDs, we are winning some important battles. More and more countries are adopting proven tobacco control measures, and if we can push a little bit further in the next six years, there will be an estimated 21 million fewer smokers in the Region – that is 21 million fewer families at risk of losing a loved one to tobacco-related illness.
Last year’s meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentarians Forum on Global Health – an initiative spearheaded by Dr Shin – focused on strengthening financing for universal health coverage. Countries across the Region have taken strong steps towards making health systems stronger – especially in improving financial protection for the poorest and most vulnerable.
And WHO’s new geographically dispersed office focusing on health and environment is now up and running in Seoul – thanks to Dr Shin and the Republic of Korea, who signed the agreement establishing the Centre in January. If you recall, the last month of his office was in December. In other words, Dr Shin was working extremely hard right up until his very last day in the job.
Dr Shin was a giant of WHO and of public health. He transformed WHO in this Region to become much more efficient and effective in working as one team to support countries to improve health.
While the Region today faces many new and increasingly complex threats, especially when we look to the future, we can all be enormously grateful to Dr Shin for the strong foundation his ten years of leadership provided for us to tackle these challenges.
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Ladies and gentlemen, when I took up the role of Regional Director earlier this year, I promised two things: first, that I would do my best to continue Dr Shin’s considerable legacy, and to build on it and go further. And second, that while shaping the best way to do that, there would be no gaps in the Organization’s work.
I hope the report you have before you reflects each of these commitments. It has been another very busy year for our routine work: in providing support to countries, convening various meetings and dialogues, and responding to disease outbreaks and natural disasters.
In the eight months since I took up the role of Regional Director, I have travelled to 28 countries and areas of the Region. For those of you I haven’t visited yet, I hope to do so soon.
During my travels I have been privileged to meet with Presidents, Prime Ministers, Health Ministers, other Ministers, partners, health workers, patients, village chiefs, and people in communities – from the plains of Mongolia, to the bustling urban communities of Singapore and Beijing, rural villages in Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos, to some of the remotest islands in the Pacific.
During each of these visits, I have listened very carefully to all of those I have been fortunate to meet, about how WHO can further strengthen our work to support countries and areas in our Region.
To capture what I heard from Member States both during the RD election campaign and since, we developed our ‘white paper’ earlier this year – to articulate our vision for WHO’s work with Member States and partners in the coming five years.
The white paper is an implementation plan for WHO’s Global Programme of Work 13 (GPW13) – reflecting both the shared challenges which arise from the unique demographic, economic, social and geographic characteristics of the Western Pacific.
Over the first half of this year we embarked on an extensive consultation process – starting with a virtual retreat of all 600 WHO staff in the Region. Using videoconferencing and social media apps, the retreat connected staff in 11 countries across 6 time zones over 3 days.
We have had many in depth discussions with and received extensive feedback from Member States through various consultations in countries around the Region.
And in July we convened the first ever Western Pacific Region Partners Forum – another virtual event bringing together around 950 partners.
I would like to sincerely thank all of you for your engagement in this process. The document you have before you is much stronger for all of your contributions.
I hope you see in the White Paper a shared vision for WHO’s work with Member States and partners in our Region – a vision which builds on this Region’s proud history of health achievements and strong tradition of solidarity; and a story about building the future, together. Thank you very much for being co-authors of this story with us.
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In the many rich conversations I have had throughout my travels across the Region, three key messages have emerged, which are at the heart of the story I have just described.
First, work for the future. The future is already here, and we should embrace it. This means that while we should continue what we are doing well, we cannot stand still – because our Region is extremely dynamic, and rapidly changing. If we only respond to the issues today, which were caused yesterday, we’re late.
Take, for example, the economy. The Asian Development Bank projects that the Asia-Pacific economy will double in size in the next ten years. A regional economy twice the size of what it is today means a totally different world – with vast implications for health and health services.
In the context of such a fast-changing world, to stay relevant and valuable, WHO must also keep changing, and we must stay ahead of the curve, together with all the Member States.
Second, people and countries at the centre. The needs and aspirations of countries will always be the driving force for what we do. Many of you have told me that Member States greatly value the direct, tailored support WHO provides to countries to address their specific priorities.
While countries have many concerns and challenges in common, every country is very different and unique. We are absolutely committed to continuing to provide support to every country for addressing its specific concerns.
Third, when we look to the future, there are concerns which unite all Member States – and where we will make the greatest progress by working together. Our consultations on the White Paper reaffirmed that this includes four broad themes:
health security, including antimicrobial resistance;
noncommunicable diseases and ageing;
the health impacts of climate and environmental change;
and reaching the unreached – unfortunately there are still groups of people affected by unfinished infectious diseases and still have high rates of child and maternal mortality.
Our discussions with countries over the last few months also reaffirmed that adequately addressing all of these issues in a complex, changing world requires new thinking and new ways of working. As one Minister said to me, I think I can share his name, it was the Minster in Brunei, countries need support not just on the “what”, but also the “how”.
To reverse or at least stabilize upward trends – for instance, in NCDs, and reduce health inequities in doing so – we need to work differently.
This is why the White Paper also sets out a series of ideas for working differently – what we call “operational shifts” – aligned with the strategic direction of GPW 13, but developed mindful of the particular circumstances, existing capacities and unique mix of challenges facing our Region. These are both approaches to guide WHO, and tools through which we will work with countries to deliver better health.
Our aim is that through using these tools, we will be able to work with all of you to “future-proof” health systems in countries.
To deliver on the ideas outlined in the White Paper, we have already reconfigured our Regional Office structure. We will maintain our drive towards leaner and efficient, effective management, and stronger accountability. We will continue to strengthen the support we provide to countries, and to invest in staff development. And we will strengthen our focus on gender and equity – to ensure that everyone in the Region benefits equally from health gains.
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Honourable Ministers and distinguished delegates, as we have been preparing for this week’s Regional Committee, I have been reflecting on my first eight months in this role.
I have thought a great deal about the many people I have met: such as the nurses and midwives at the Vicencio Health Centre, just down the road from this office, in metro Manila. I’m sure at this very moment, they are working hard to take care of new mothers and give their babies the best possible start to life.
I think about the women community leaders in Samoa and Palau – and their commitment to improving health in their communities; the passionate Chinese doctor who proudly showed me around her primary health care clinic in Beijing; and the dedicated rural health workers in Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos.
And I think a lot about the many communities who I have been privileged to visit in the Pacific, who are increasingly affected by climate change – and who wonder what the future will hold for them, their families and communities.
The faces of these people are what motivate me every day – because this is who we are here to serve.
I took up the role of Regional Director in February with great humility. After nine months in this job, I am energized, inspired, and optimistic about the future.
We face some significant challenges, which are unprecedented in their size and complexity. But I believe these challenges are not insurmountable, if we work together – focused on the values and commitment to health that we share, and united by the story of our Region’s progress towards better health.
I sincerely thank Member States for your trust in me to lead WHO in the Western Pacific in the coming five years. I look forward to working with all of you, as we write the next chapter in the Western Pacific Region’s story: to become the healthiest and safest Region in the world.
Thank you very much.