*Errors and omissions excepted (E&OE)
Honourable Ministers, distinguished partners, ladies and gentlemen,
Greetings from Manila and thank you for joining our second Innovation Forum in the Western Pacific Region under this year’s theme, “Scaling for Impact.”
The Western Pacific Region, home to more than 1.9 billion people, is faced with increasing health challenges, making "business as usual" no longer an option.
In our regional vision, For the Future, we have adopted a collective mission of becoming an even healthier and safer region. This requires WHO and Member States to seek new approaches through innovation.
The COVID-19 pandemic makes this need even more urgent. Therefore, we must reprioritize our public health issues, reoptimize systems, and continue to develop creative ways of doing things.
At our first Forum in 2020, we crafted a vision for innovations in the Western Pacific. And today, we have gathered to take that vision into action.
In this Forum, we ask, how are Member States and stakeholders innovating for the future of public health in this Region? What can we do together to systematically and broadly harness the innovations, benefitting our populations?
On the first day, the winners of the WHO Western Pacific Innovation Challenge will share their perspectives of tackling the most pressing health challenges in the Region.
And on the second day, we will ask Member States, how do they imagine the intersection of economics and health for all? What ways can we find to strengthen national health systems by institutionalizing innovation? And finally, we will also ask what WHO can do to support the governments on this journey.
I am pleased to congratulate the first WHO Western Pacific Region Innovation Challenge winners, selected from over 400 participants by two panels of judges comprised of WHO staff and industry experts.
I hope you stay connected with us and share your vision, passion, knowledge, and experience in understanding and tackling these challenges.
Thank you very much, and I wish you a productive forum.