Remarks of Dr Takeshi Kasai: Acceptance of Executive Board nomination as Regional Director

Thank you Madam Chair.

I thank Member States for the trust you have placed in me to lead WHO’s work in the Western Pacific Region for the next five years. It is a great honour to be nominated as the seventh Regional Director for the Region.

The outgoing RD, Dr Shin Young-soo, leaves very big shoes to fill. Under his leadership over the past decade, we have transformed WHO in the Western Pacific to become truly country-centred, and to support Member States to achieve significant improvements in health.

I will do my best to continue Dr Shin’s legacy, and to build on it and go further.

We cannot stand still, because our Region is extremely dynamic: it is rapidly changing – economically, socially and environmentally. This means that to stay relevant and valuable, we must also stay ahead of the curve.   

Some of the challenges we face are great — but they are not insurmountable. Innovations and new technologies make things possible that we could not have imagined a decade ago. And by acting today to address the challenges of tomorrow, we can turn challenges into shared opportunities.

Madam Chair, in a time of rapid change, I think it is important to go back to fundamentals.

Over the New Year holiday break, I had a chance to visit the remote town on the northeast coast of Japan where I started my public health career 30 years ago.

I visited one of the many mentors I have been so fortunate to have over the years. She is now 90 years old, but still quite healthy. She is a doctor who devoted her 50-year career to public health in the community.  

Visiting her reaffirmed for me the importance of community and the power of primary health care. At the end of our visit, she told me: “My career was full of challenges, but it was gave meaning to my life.”

As I make this speech today, thousands of health workers are hard at work in our Region, providing health services to their communities. As Regional Director, I will do my best to strengthen primary health care, and in doing so, I will try to ensure that primary healthcare workers have the same kind of fulfilling career my mentor enjoyed.

Madam Chair, the Western Pacific Region is both vast and diverse. Every country is different; we need a tailored approach if WHO is to be truly people- and country-focused. At the same time, there are shared ambitions and common agendas which unite all Member States.

WHO must support both country and regional health aspirations, through close dialogue and a very good understanding of the realities on the ground. This is why regional offices have such an important role to play in our organization – and why it is such a privilege to be nominated to this role. 

Finally, Madam Chair, let me say that I very much look forward to working closely with the Director-General and other Regional Directors to deliver GPW13, and its vision of health as a driver of global development.

I will take up the role of Regional Director for the Western Pacific with great humility. But I am also confident and optimistic about the future – because our Region is home to extremely dedicated staff, committed Member States, caring health care workers, and very capable partners. As Regional Director, I look forward to working with all of these groups, to make the Western Pacific even safer and healthier in the next five years.

Thank you.