Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Honourable Minister of Health of the Population, and of Women’s Promotion and Integration of the Republic of Congo, and Chairperson of the Sixty-ninth session of the Regional Committee for Africa, Mrs Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo,
Honourable Ministers of Health and Heads of Delegation,
WHO Director-General, my dear brother, Dr Tedros,
Your Excellency, African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mrs Amira Elfadil, my dear sister, and thank you so much for the wonderful collaboration and partnership which you have outlined so eloquently in your statement,
Dear colleagues from United Nations agencies, bilateral and other partner organizations,
Distinguished guests and members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen and dear colleagues:
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this Seventieth session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa.
Were it not for COVID-19, we would be sitting together in Lomé, and I would like to thank the Honourable Minister of Health and Public Hygiene of the Republic of Togo, Prof Mijiyawa Moustafa, and the Government of Togo, for the preparatory work done in anticipation of hosting this session and welcoming to all of us to Lomé. I look forward to when we will be able to meet in Lomé.
I would just like to say that I am actually addressing you from our WHO Office in Pretoria because again due to the virus, I came to South Africa on mission and because of flight difficulties I could not come back to Brazzaville on time to run the meeting from there. This is indeed the new normal that we are having to cope with today.
I would like to thank the Honourable Minister in Congo for your leadership, for the excellent collaboration and guidance to us, the Secretariat, as the Chair of the Sixty-ninth session of the Regional Committee. Thank you for all you have done to help us organize and run this meeting today.
The world has indeed changed in the past eight months, Honourable Ministers and partners, and I would like to commend the Governments of Africa, through you Honourable Ministers, and appreciate the leadership of Heads of State, and the fortitude of communities, for the strong and sustained response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Countries in the Region do have significant experience in dealing with numerous and sometimes widespread epidemics, and later today we will celebrate the historic achievement of kicking-out one such threat, with the certification of regional eradication of wild poliovirus. I hope and am certain that this will motivate us all as we continue in the fight against COVID-19.
The coronavirus pandemic has proven once again, the importance of investing in health systems, enhancing equitable access to care, improving readiness to prevent and control outbreaks, and enabling communities to play their role in realizing better health.
As WHO, we are providing policy guidance and technical support to the response to COVID-19, including through our WHO representatives who walk every step with Ministers of Health and their teams in every Member State in the African Region. More than 100,000 health workers have been trained in various areas of the response, such as case management and infection prevention and control, and millions of essential supply items have been shipped and replenished.
We believe that the concerted actions of countries, with support from WHO, the African Union and other partners, have averted the serious catastrophe that was foretold in early projections for how this virus could spread in the African Region.
Now as countries re-open their economies, increased vigilance is required, with public health capacities working in every community and engaged and enabled individuals doing their best to protect themselves and to protect others.
The importance of equity and the social determinants of health have been highlighted in recent months and must be the principles that guide our guide our strategies and actions to have the greatest impact, not only on COVID-19 but also on other health issues.
This time last year we set ourselves a focus of contributing to the global triple billion targets of achieving universal health coverage, protecting people from health emergencies, and promoting good health and well-being. This pandemic has strengthened our determination to work with governments, communities and partners in these areas and towards these goals.
Within the WHO Secretariat, we are restructuring the Regional Office around delivering on these goals and to improve and advance measurable results, guided by key performance indicators as part of the regional and now global Transformation Agenda of WHO.
We are supporting countries in translating high-level political commitments into policies, strategies and roadmaps towards UHC, working with partners to scale-up support, particularly at the sub-national and district levels, and providing guidance to ensure continuity of essential services in the context of COVID-19. We do not want people to die of other diseases, while we put all our efforts in to the pandemic.
We expect this virus to be with us for a while, and as we adjust to the new normal, I ask that we look for the advantages and work together to maximize the opportunities of new tools, technologies, and innovations.
Most importantly, I would like to echo my sister, Amira’s urging for us to join in all the initiatives to have access to the technologies to address COVID-19, particularly the vaccines. Just to add that at WHO, we are going to be communicating with governments and through you Honourable Ministers, on how we can further work on this.
The private sector has played a great role in supporting the pandemic response, and this must be leveraged further to build back better with more resilient health systems, and sustained links between epidemic preparedness, health promotion, prevention and the determinants of health.
As we work together to improve the health of populations, it is imperative that health systems are designed to provide people-centred care for individuals at every station of life, with a strong emphasis on equity.
I would like to assure you of WHO’s full and continued commitment to making good health a reality for all people in Africa, and I look forward to rich discussions during this session of the Regional committee.
Thank you very much.