RD’s Closing Remarks
• Honorable Minister of Health of Rwanda
• Honorable Health Ministers
• Esteemed partners
• Distinguished guests
• Youth among us
• Ladies and gentlemen
• This Call to Action heralds the end of a very full programme and the conclusion of our 1st Africa Health Forum.
• I thank His Excellency Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, and the people of Rwanda for successfully hosting this inaugural Forum, the Right Honorable Prime Minister Anastase Murekezi for opening the event, and the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr Diane Gashumba, for her wholehearted participation in the Forum and for presenting the Call to Action.
• The Call recognises that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides an unique opportunity to reposition primary prevention in health service delivery and is also an ideal platform for catalysing inter-sectoral engagement and action.
• I am immensely gratified by the commitment to stronger collaboration and engagement among all stakeholders behind the goal of achieving UHC to ensure improved financial protection for the most vulnerable populations to leave no one behind.
• I said at the start of this meeting that this Forum was part of the Transformation Agenda of WHO in the African Region which I introduced when I took office in 2015.
• I said then that partnerships and transparency were going to be key to the way we would be doing business to deliver on our mandate of improving the health of our people.
• My vision has become reality in this Forum which converged a diverse audience and expert panels with lively contributions on how to promote health equity in Africa. I must say it has far exceeded my expectations.
• In years to come, when the young people here are the driving seat, making research-based policy decisions, embracing partnerships and innovation, think back to this Forum and say “I was there when it started.”
• Ladies and gentlemen, I’m happy to say we plan to hold the Forum biennially as a way of leveraging with our stakeholders and planning how we can work together to deliver the best health outcomes for Africa’s people.
• We covered much ground over the past two days.
• A recurring theme was about equity and social justice – how we can tip the scales to allow essential health and related services for all people, with improved coverage and equitable access, and minimal financial barriers.
• From the first session which dealt with health financing and getting value for money
- to the side event on eHealth to extend health coverage using innovation and technology
- to the session on research and knowing who is being left behind, and why, and what research is needed to rectify this
- to the issue of women, the different roles they have, and even the issue of menstruation which alienates them from education and society
- to the session on youth where they urged for “nothing about us without us”.
• There was general agreement that Universal Health Coverage will bring a fairer deal for African people, reducing poverty through better health – which makes economic sense to governments, development partners and the private sector alike.
• Time and again, the need for partnerships was underscored. I really appreciate the Member States present who participated so fully in this open Forum.
• Several Ministers stated boldly that health is a necessity, a human right, and you outlined some innovations to fund healthcare in your countries.
• Rwanda cited some home-grown solutions, ranging from subsidizing nurses and midwives to run their businesses as part of SMART financing, and funneling interest from social bonds to the health sector, while Zimbabwe is taxing mobile data and telecommunications for health.
• These creative ways of increasing domestic funding for health are absolutely essential and to me, a very encouraging sign that countries are actively looking for ways to maintain – and even increase – their health stock.
• There was general agreement that Africa should be less reliant on donor funding and more assertive in using funds smartly to align with national priorities.
• I am very grateful for the honest advice from the donors present to ‘get the basics right!’, and the reminder to us all that prevention is cheaper and better than cure.
• As part of the Transformation Agenda, I am committed to demonstrating results, using funds efficiently and being transparent in the African Region.
• In terms of global health security, we heard that partnerships and networks are ‘no longer a choice but a must’ to avoid disruption of national economic activities and protect the people of Africa.
• The theme of this meeting was “Putting people first”. The road to Universal Health Coverage includes getting the basics right at local level, and time and again, the issue of community health workers came up as a valuable resource who can play a critical role in prevention, surveillance and early responses to outbreaks – but that they need to be acknowledged, trained, compensated and have clear career paths.
• At the start of this Forum, I invited our youth to partner with us to create health systems that deliver for all. I was thrilled at how enthusiastic and vocal our young people were about being involved and driving change.
• Options of how to do this included involving university students in research to generate local data and guide evidence-based policy making, advocating for social and behavioral change in communities, and engaging community health workers.
• We heard you loud and clear: youth want to be in the driving seat, engaged and empowered, not used and abused.
• A number of the participants raised the point that to roll out Universal Health Coverage, some kind of mandatory insurance was inevitable.
• By putting people first, citizens should be seen not as beneficiaries but as contributors who take responsibility for their health, and need to see accountability, active monitoring and governance.
• Partnerships with the private sector can help to advance health at a much faster rate, and they have a very important role to play in taking UHC forward. Yet issues of trust need to be smoothed out, the narrative needs to change, supported by strong regulatory frameworks for good private sector collaboration.
• The narrative also needs to change in how we deal with our old enemies – HIV, TB and malaria – to do things differently in partnerships to serve public purpose. With the new threats facing Africa - particularly burgeoning NCDs - much greater emphasis is needed on addressing the underlying social determinants to prevent these diseases now, to avoid crippling costs in the future.
• Ladies and gentlemen, I believe strongly that innovation, particularly Information Technology, will transform how we go about our business for better health in Africa.
• We announced our ‘courtship’ with the ITU which will lead to a letter of intent for scaling up ICT services in Africa to improve quality of life and reduce equity gaps.
• Gabon’s massive investment in fibre optics, the partnership with the private sector and the World Bank to collect data on health systems and the introduction of digital patient identifiers in hospitals is very exciting news.
• In what sounded very much like a sci-fi movie, we heard about drones that deliver blood supplies, and computers like IBM’s Watson that have better diagnostic capabilities than medical practitioners!
• At the same time, we heard that the interesting ‘affliction’ of small-scale, silo projects known as ‘pilotitis’ could be avoided with country resources in partnership with donors and better eHealth coordination at higher levels.
• In closing, I want to pay tribute to our excellent moderators who kept to time and were not shy to ask provocative questions, prodding us until we responded honestly to issues we feel passionate about.
• To our panelists who gave their time so willingly to share their expertise, and to everyone who provided such rich discussion, thank you very much.
• There’s an African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
• This meeting has shown that partnerships are critical.
• Thank you all for walking on this road to Universal Health Coverage in Africa with us.