Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Thank you very much, Chairperson:
As has been said already, health workers in African countries and in other countries, our colleagues in WHO, UN partners and others, have worked tirelessly and continue to work tirelessly on the COVID-19 response to save lives and mitigate socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. We know that the most vulnerable communities are suffering the most.
I’d like to commend African Member States governments for taking early, decisive action in imposing public health and social measures, which has resulted in lower cases and deaths than initially projected, including by ourselves as Secretariat, at a great social and economic cost.
Now as countries are opening up their economies, we are seeing an uptick in cases in some settings and reinforcing our support, particularly for engaging communities, so that people continue and are enabled to play their part, as well as continuing to strengthen scaled-up public health interventions.
African Region Member States have all signed on to the COVAX facility of WHO’s ACT Accelerator and are getting ready to play their part by planning for the distribution of a vaccine, using a tool that we have developed in the Region. I would like to reiterate that African Member States are hoping for, as they tell us repeatedly, and expecting global solidarity and equitable access to the vaccine supplies.
So, the exciting news yesterday of a possible effective vaccine becoming available presages significant cold chain challenges for African countries by the type of vaccine that that is, which will need to be factored in to the support to be provided – I just thought I would highlight that.
In supporting our Member States’ response to the pandemic, we have repurposed virtually all the technical staff and many of the management staff in our country offices, and many technical colleagues in the Regional Office, having to balance this with supporting other priority programmes and help sustain essential health services.
We very much look forward to strengthening our teams as the additional, predictable and flexible financing that many Member States have emphasized is essential in this area of WHO’s work, becomes available.
The pandemic has emphasized, and many Member States said it, yet again the importance of resilient health systems in dealing with outbreaks and emergencies, and in supporting the realization of universal health coverage. Emphasizing the link between these areas of work will deliver dividends in terms of lives saved, sustainable development, and international health security. In the African Region, we are re-organizing our structure and work processes accordingly, to emphasize these links between our work on emergencies, on health systems strengthening, and on particular diseases with a focus on people.
We look forward to working with our Member States for this.
Thank you very much, Chairperson.