Dear President of the Regional Committee Professor Alexandru Rafila, Deputy Executive President, Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, ministers, ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to warmly thank you for being present with us here today, 1 year after a splendid Regional Committee in beautiful Astana, Kazakhstan. I would like to thank Kazakhstan for the amazing hospitality of President Tokayev, of the Government and, of course, especially of the colleagues of the Ministry of Health, rakhmet. I'm sure that we will all cherish memories of this wonderful Regional Committee forever.
Ladies and gentlemen, this year is a very special Regional Committee because tomorrow marks the symbolic ending of a period for which you elected me 5 years ago, and marks the symbolic beginning of another 5-year sequence for the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
I acknowledge that this may look a little bit artificial, since I'm the only candidate for my succession. But, as I told the Regional Evaluation Group on 17 June, diligently chaired by Ms Ewa Nowacka from Poland, I have been taking this re-election very seriously, as a unique opportunity to renew my contract with all of you 53 Member States with the same determination and modesty as 5 years ago.
As a marathon runner myself, I know that [your] toughest opponent in life is ultimately yourself. So, ladies and gentlemen, this year I thought I would start with a short film to show you some selected achievements of my mandate. And, of course, there is a detailed activity report included in the Regional Director’s report which is in front of you.
Ladies and gentlemen, over the past 5 years we have seen profound changes that impacted the world and this Region which concern health. There are new urgent priorities that have emerged, such as lack of access to medicines and a shortfall of health-care workers. WHO estimates that by 2030, the world will be short by 10.2 million health-care workers.
Health systems have been faced with crises of an unprecedented scale – COVID-19, devastating earthquakes and, more and more, the tangible results of climate change: wildfires and droughts. In this Region alone, every year 175 000 people die due to heat.
The geopolitical balance has been drastically upset due to devastating wars. We could never imagine that, since we met in Astana last year, WHO has reported 444 attacks on health care – more than 1 per day. Dr Tedros [Adhanom Ghebreyesus] and I will continue to denounce in the strongest possible terms any attack on health-care workers and health facilities – a very clear breach of the international humanitarian law.
This has also meant that the WHO Regional Office for Europe has had to adapt very quickly. I'm proud to say that I believe we did, thanks to you approving the European Programme of Work (EPW) very quickly after my appointment. The EPW actually proved to be a very effective and agile tool to weather these current crises.
The vision I'm proposing for the next 5 years on health and well-being will be inspired by these profound changes, but also by the lessons learned by myself as the Regional Director and by the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
The main lesson learned is that both Member States and WHO have to operate on what I call a dual-track approach. This means being able to manage current crises and prepare better for the next one while ensuring basic, daily health-care services.
My vision is that through the successful WHO Pan-European Leadership Academy, Tier 3 – starting 6 December and targeting chief medical officers (CMOs) and directors of the ministries of health in our Region – we’ll first upgrade the skills to govern health systems in times of permacrisis, and then we'll establish a community of practice, a safe environment where CMOs and directors can continuously exchange successes, advice and even failures. I would like to thank Professor Walter Ricciardi from Italy, from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, for being my co-director.
Looking back, gradually we developed – together with all of you Member States – 5 working methods. I'm very committed to strengthening those going forward.
The first is to keep close and permanent contact with each of the 53 Member States, be it individually or subregionally. A very good example of a subregional modus operandi is the Small Countries Initiative. I would like to thank the Minister of Health of Cyprus, Mr Michael Damianos, for the last ministerial meeting of the small countries which was very rich in content, not least in prevention and control of childhood cancer.
Another very good example is the Roadmap for Health and Well-being in the Western Balkans, approved in 2021 in beautiful Budva, Montenegro, by the 5 prime ministers of the Western Balkan countries – a first.
Another first is the approval of the roadmap for the 5 central Asian countries, for the first time approved by the 5 heads of state, the 5 presidents. I want to thank you, my brother from Tajikistan Minister Abdullozoda Jamoliddin Abdullo. Rahmati kalon, my brother, because it was your President Emomali Rahmon who really made this happen, and which then fed into the first Central Asia International Health Investment Forum in beautiful Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, again, under the patronage of President Sadyr Japarov. I want to thank you, dear Minister of Health of Kyrgyzstan Dr Alymkadyr Beishenaliev, for your great leadership over there.
Second working method: to strengthen participatory governance, always remembering that WHO is a Member State-driven organization. This has been my ethos, listening to Member States and following through on my commitments, always guided by the Standing Committee of the Regional Committee. Thank you, Professor Adriana Pistol, for always being there and for your very wise advice, but also Dr Thomas Dentzer from Luxembourg, Chair of the Working Group on Governance, and Dr Olivia Wigzell, Chair of the Subgroup on Country Work.
We're very much looking forward, Dr Björn Eriksson, to continue working with you, and we always align with the European Executive Board members to ensure that your regional input feeds into global governance.
We have an awesome opportunity now that we have Dr Cathrine Marie Lofthus as Chair of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee. I remember very well the first time I met Cathrine; she said: “Hans, I'm not only a medical doctor, also an economist, so you cannot fiddle with the figures.” So now, if Cathrine says that the report is solid and that you're going to bring it to the Executive Board and WHO in Geneva, we feel very proud of this.
Third working method: to contribute to organizational alignment and unity, to a WHO always guided by my big brother, Dr Tedros. Thank you again, Dr Tedros, for being here instead of at the G20. It's a great honour for us and a great support to me, personally, which cannot be underestimated. Together with the country offices and, very importantly, also with the other regional directors, we believe in horizontal collaboration.
Actually, 2 new regional directors have already come to the Office – and Dr Faustine Engelbert Ndugulile, Regional Director-elect from the WHO African Region, is on his way – because I always say that the job of a regional director (there is no job description) is one of the most complicated jobs, so whatever mistakes I made, they don't have to make.
We also align with the United Nations. On 21–22 November, I will be the proud host in this room of the 25th [annual retreat of the] regional directors of the United Nations agencies working on sustainable development in Europe and central Asia. This is a fantastic opportunity to follow through on the Pact for the Future, which was just adopted by the heads of state in New York, and, of course, to feed into the development of the second EPW (EPW2).
Fourth [working method]: zero tolerance towards sexual harassment and harassment and bullying of any nature. I launched the Regional Director’s special initiative on staff health and well-being. I appointed a coordinator in my cabinet. We launched the action plan and we were the first WHO major office to conduct an annual staff health and well-being survey.
Finally, the fifth working method was a personal commitment from me to Dr Thomas Steffen from Germany when we went to campaign with our Belgian ambassador Mr Willem van der Voorde: rigorous financial management. I am very proud that we cleaned up the US$ 15 million debt I inherited in the Office here. For the second consecutive biennium, we have a clean financial balance sheet.
Whoever comes after me, I would like them to inherit a financially healthy organization. Still, we beefed up the Division of Business Operations with 30 people within the same budget by establishing the enabling hub in Istanbul. Teşekkür ederim, thank you so much, Türkiye, and to your President for giving such great conditions, because that meant that despite all of the challenges, the massively increased demand by the countries, we could deliver premium-quality operational services to the country offices and to the Member States. My dear friend, Dr Steffen, we did it.
Thematically then, on the vision, if you look at the content I plan to initiate, if and when re-elected tomorrow, there is a very innovative, participatory consultative process with all 53 Member States to develop the EPW2.
Obviously, [it will be] in line with WHO’s 14th General Programme of Work, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. My suggestion would be 70% continuity of ongoing work and 30% innovation, something we discussed over the summer with [RC74] President, Minister Rafila. It goes without saying that we're going to involve all the partners, health-care workers, patients, academicians, WHO collaborating centres and, very importantly, of course, civil society and youth to ensure social participation from the very beginning.
Now, let's start with innovation. Based on the daily interactions I have with you and trying to be an attentive listener, I'm hearing 4 potential streams which could benefit from innovation.
The first is national health security. Over the past 5 years, at least 25 of 53 Member States faced a health emergency event large enough to challenge the country's security. If we take into account the war, the COVID-19 [pandemic], the migrant crisis and, of course, antimicrobial resistance, we could say that the national security of all 53 countries is being tested.
How can a country be secure without stockpiling medicines and vaccines? How can a country be secure without sufficient trauma-care capacities to manage an unexpected mass casualty event, or without testing the hospital emergency plans? In 2024 national health security is no longer an option. It is an imperative, because no health security somewhere immediately means national health insecurity everywhere.
Dear ministers, ladies and gentlemen, I have an ironclad commitment to alleviating the suffering of millions of people due to the devastating war. Here I would like to express my utmost respect and admiration for the Minister of Health of Ukraine, Dr Viktor Lyashko. Please convey this to my friend, Viktor, [to boost] the determination of the Ministry of Health officials. Only a couple of weeks ago, I was with Viktor and Dr Sergey Dubrov up on the frontline for the sixth time. No other head of a United Nations agency has gone, since 2022, 6 times to the frontline to encourage the doctors and the nurses doing an amazing job.
We are working on 3 Rs: response, recovery and reform. Of course, I'm very concerned. This third winter will be the most difficult health crisis because, as you see, I could witness that 80% of the civilian energy grid is either damaged or destroyed. The health system of Ukraine cannot tolerate any fatigue from us; they deserve all our support.
As always, it was a great honour for me when I went to Ukraine to meet the First Lady, Madam Olena Zelenska, who is the patron of mental health. Together with Victor, we have now trained more than 100 000 nonspecialist health workers in mental health management. As Madam Zelenska always says, actually every one of us should be a psychologist.
We are working on rehabilitation, as you can see from the girl here, who was performing a magnificent dance. I observed more than 20 000 children and people who had to have a limb amputated.
If you talk to the children, which I did, and ask them, “What do you want? What is your dream?”, they have dreams. They don't talk about war. They don't talk about revenge. They talk about one thing: that the noise of the drones and the bombs above their houses is stopping, that there is peace, peace and peace. That's the only thing the children of Ukraine want. Dear Madam, please tell Victor, even when [I am] re-elected tomorrow with a strong mandate, Ukraine will remain at the top of my political agenda.
Ladies and gentlemen, in the devastating conflict between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah, I will continue to echo the call by the WHO Director-General for all hostages to be released immediately and unconditionally and, while they are in captivity, to have access to medical care. I went [to Israel] after Astana up to the border to Gaza and spoke to the families of the hostages. I will echo the call of the WHO Director-General for an immediate ceasefire, and especially for a drastic, drastic scale-up of humanitarian assistance to the civilian people, be it in Gaza or Lebanon.
I am in daily coordination with my sister, Dr Hannan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, guided by Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Programme in Geneva and WHO Deputy Director-General, and with the support, first and foremost, of Türkiye, also through the European Union (EU) civil protection mechanism of Switzerland, 5 EU countries, including my native country, Belgium, but also Spain, France, Romania and Italy. We facilitated the evacuation of 600 children, either with cancer or with heavy war trauma, to European countries.
Based on the humanitarian dialogue I always keep with all partners, I want to thank you, Dr Ashi Salomon [of Israel], for being there 24/7 and helping to push open any door for more humanitarian assistance. We now have a firm commitment from Israel for 1000 more children to be evacuated within the next month.
But, my dear ministers, there are not enough places being offered. Why only 5 countries from the EU? We have 27. Why only 7 countries from the 53 [Member States of the WHO European Region]? It doesn't matter – 1 child, 10 children, 100 children – please step forward.
I want to thank from the bottom of my heart my other sister Ms Stella Kyriakides, with whom we had a bilateral [meeting] yesterday and who kindly and generously proposed to table this at the next health security meeting.
And remember what the Koran and the Bible say alike: if you save one child, you have saved humanity. Let's work together and save humanity.
If I talk about national health security, I also talk about pandemic preparedness and response. I will be ready to further my team, provide strong support to reach, as Dr Tedros was mentioning, the pandemic treaty, while at the same time strengthening continental resilience.
What does [continental resilience] mean? It means first soliciting and convening political leadership; second, operationalizing the new strategy on Preparedness 2.0 and the first-ever regional action plan on emergency medical teams, which I hope you will adopt on Wednesday; and third, harmonizing surveillance systems and sharpening alert systems through the recently established Pan-European Network for Disease Control, now [made up of] 30 public health institutions from 17 countries. It's open, it's iterative.
Thank you so much Professor Chris Witty and Dame Jenny Harris as well, for your leadership to initiate [the Network]. I think we're off to a very good start. We’re doing it very inclusively, making sure we don't duplicate [efforts]. I want to thank also the new director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, dear Dr Pamela [Rendi-Wagner], for being part of it, as well as the Eurasian Economic Commission.
Finally, continental resilience means foretelling scenarios and anticipating a gap in equal access to medical countermeasures when the next pandemic hits us. Here, I would like to thank Mr Laurent Michel, Director-General of the Health Emergency Preparedness Authority (HERA). For the first time in history, my office is sending a senior director to HERA as a secondment – usually it’s the other way around – to ensure a pan-European approach under my motto to leave no country behind.
Actually, a lot is happening. I would like to thank here Minister Dubravka Bošnjak of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We were working very closely to upgrade the molecular diagnostic capacities during the COVID-19 [pandemic].
Dear colleagues, we have to take the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance, including multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, but also HIV and hepatitis, as an urgent wakeup call. Here I would like to thank Minister of Health of Malta Jo Etienne Abela for the global leadership. I know we're waiting for the [arrival of the] Minister tomorrow, who led the joint high-level meeting recently in New York.
First and foremost, this means operationalizing the multisectoral One Health approach, in line with the quadripartite I signed with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the United Nations Environment Programme (and [here I give] credit to our colleagues), which is mirroring the quadripartite that Dr Tedros signed at the global level. Tomorrow, at a lunch for the heads of delegations, we will launch the first operational guide on One Health and also the first WHO Collaborating Centre on One Health.
Already we are preparing to launch World Tuberculosis Day next year, and the Tuberculosis-Free Initiative in central Asia. Here I want to thank my brother Dr Asilbek Khudayarov from Uzbekistan for a fantastic meeting we had in Tashkent in July with the Stop TB Partnership. Please pass my very best to the Minister.
Dear colleagues, all these actions I'm talking about on national health security underscore the importance of the global health diplomacy dialogues which are convened by our office in Brussels. The second edition just finished for officials of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our own WHO staff. We are preparing for the third edition completely in the Russian language because we need more health diplomats.
What are health diplomats? Health diplomats are champions in the delicate choreography of political relationships to open the right door at the right time to position health at the centre of investment choices and political decisions.
I myself I had the opportunity recently to showcase or try my global health diplomatic skills at the Berlin Process Summit in 2024. I would like to thank Professor Karl Lauterbach from Germany for having facilitated the invitation by the German Chancellor Scholz with the heads of state.
I participated last year. Last year I was given the honour of an intervention of 2 minutes. This year, I was given the great honour to give an intervention of 1 minute. I must say it helps a lot if you have 1 minute: you think [more carefully] of what you're going to tell. I was the only [representative of a] United Nations agency and the only voice on health.
Actually, looking in all modesty around the table, through the eye contact I had with everyone, I think we got across. We linked health with national security. We linked health with being a driver for the green agenda. We linked health with figures on job productivity and employment. Believe it or not, all of this in 55 seconds. In between, I even had the opportunity to wish Prime Minister Edi Rama a good recovery from [minor] surgery.
The second area which is open for innovation is the unfinished burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health. Ladies and gentlemen, every single day in our Region, 7400 people die due to the fact that 4 industries are following a similar playbook: tobacco, alcohol, fossil fuels, unhealthy diet.
We are the champions globally of alcohol drinking. If we don't take stronger actions, soon we'll also have the Olympic medal in smoking. Already 20% of youth is e-vaping. But there is also a lot to celebrate. You know that I'm an incurable optimist.
France and Spain have halted the rapid rise of obesity. Ten countries have already reached the 2025 premature mortality targets for NCDs and 16 more are on their way to do so by the end of next year. But we cannot rest on our laurels. We have to accelerate [progress] on NCD targets by 2030. And that's why we propose to launch 2 streams of action. The first one is shorter term, looking towards the United Nations high-level meeting in 2025 on NCDs.
I mean, we were always the champion of NCDs; we cannot go there as the worst pupil of the class. That's why we finished a country package of so-called best buys – evidence-based, cost-effective actions which yield positive population benefits in less than 5 years – with a focus on cardiovascular disease, the number-one cause of premature mortality in eastern Europe.
I would like to thank my good friend Dr Peter Takács from Hungary for tabling this very high on the agenda, [as well as] cancer, a rapidly rising burden in the world. Here I would like to congratulate, really very sincerely, Minister of [Health of] Armenia Dr Anahit Avanesian. I know how much success you had in increasing the uptake of cervical cancer screening once you introduced the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine by building trust among the girls, the parents and the health-care workers. Congratulations.
The second stream on NCDs is longer term. It's Vision 2050. It's looking to create a European Region resilient to NCDs. It's a forward-looking strategy which ties NCD prevention with the bigger agenda topics of climate change, peace and security. Basically it means, number one, to address the commercial determinants of health.
Here, I really have to express my greatest respect for Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium Mr Frank Vandenbroucke for launching with us the report on the commercial determinants of health under the very successful EU Presidency. Very courageous, very successful. Thank you, Deputy Prime Minister.
It also means including NCDs into emergency [planning]. Thank you, dear Jonas. Denmark, we, in this room, we hosted the global meeting on NCDs in emergencies here.
It also means strengthening national innovation in line with the first-ever plan on creating ecosystems in this Region for public health innovation, which we will put [forward] for your input on Wednesday.
Finally, it means a drastic scale-up of engagement of the young people, the people with lived [experience of] disease, the European medical and nursing associations. If we speak then about mental health, I think the House of Swag was very clear this morning. We saw an increase of 25% in depression and anxiety following the COVID-19 [pandemic].
Our latest survey in 44 countries on the health behaviour of schoolchildren shows that among 15-year-olds, 28% of girls and 14% of boys say that they feel lonely most of the time, or always. I cannot repeat it enough: Loneliness is a killer, be it in the young generation or in the elderly. Suicide is now higher in the older population than in the younger population.
Three years ago, we launched the Pan-European Mental Health Coalition with Queen Mathilde of Belgium and EU Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, 2 great mental health champions. Based on that success, we plan to continue and evolve our action in 42 countries where we're working on mental health, and even to go beyond this, to include the harmful impact of screen time and social media on the mental health of youth.
[The third area for innovation] is climate change and health. The climate crisis is a health crisis. Environmental risk factors, including air pollution and noise, are [responsible for] at least 1.4 million avoidable deaths in our Region.
Good news – we have a very powerful instrument. The Budapest Declaration, adopted at the 7th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, sets out unprecedented political commitment and targets to address the triple crisis of climate change, air pollution and loss of biodiversity.
I am very committed to strengthening the partnerships launched in Budapest, including on health-sector climate action. We started transatlantic policy dialogues with the United States Department of Health and Human Services and my brother Jarbas [Barbosa], the Regional Director of the Pan American Health Organization.
Of course, we're working hand in hand with you, dear Minister of Health of Azerbaijan Dr Teymur Musayev, on the very successful 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), soon to take place in Baku, to position health as high as possible. Thank you very much for this.
But in order to sustain the political momentum on climate change and health, I suggest [that we not only] put climate change as a central pillar of the EPW2, but also boost it through a bold new initiative.
If and when appointed by the WHO Executive Board in February 2025, we'll fly to beautiful Reykjavik in Iceland to launch the Pan-European Commission on Climate Change and Health to boost health sector leadership. And I'm very inspired that the charismatic previous Prime Minister of Iceland, Ms Katrín Jakobsdóttir, has agreed to be President of the Commission. She is also the Chair of the Council of World Women Leaders, 88 female presidents and prime ministers. Takk fyrir, Iceland.
Here, I’ll take the opportunity to thank Professor Dirk Ramaekers, the Secretary General from the Federal Public Health Service in Belgium, and Professor Elias Mossiallos from the London School of Economics [and Political Science] for constantly advising me on very pragmatic actions to take, balancing between mitigation, adaptation and what to do in terms of governance. Thank you very much.
The last stream that we propose for innovation is ageing in good health. The demography in our Region is that of plunging fertility and a rapidly ageing population. Frankly speaking, be it north, south, west or east, our health systems are not coping. They're going to collapse unless a drastic pivot is made towards prevention, health literacy, improved self-care and healthy ageing – starting with prenatal health, when a lot is determined on health for the future.
But this approach will only materialize if we strongly encourage governments and societies alike to place people's well-being at the core of all policies and political priorities, which is the de facto definition of an economy of well-being.
That's why I'm very committed to leading the development, with all of you, of a strategy and framework for action on ageing well in ageing societies, complemented with specific strategies for specific periods in life – starting with updating the European Strategy for Child and Adolescent Health and Development, obviously hand in hand with the United Nations Children’s Fund.
Again, I want to acknowledge that a lot is happening. Yesterday, we had a bilateral [meeting] with Minister [of Health] Mariella Mularoni from San Marino. Congratulations. San Marino is making integrating health and social services for ageing well a priority, focusing on dignity. If I speak with older people and I ask them what is the most important aspect of ageing well, they always say the same words – not to be belittled. Give us dignity. Congratulations, Madam Minister.
Already, we are starting to prepare for the Global Expo in Ireland in 2026 to showcase the effective use of assistive technologies and digital applications for healthy ageing and decreasing the burden on the workforce. Thank you very much to Minister Donnelly and Minister Rabbitte.
Dear colleagues, I spoke now about 4 streams for innovation, which you see on the screen. But there is one area, if and when re-elected, on which I will come to you for advice – a great concern of mine. It is about the health consequences of sexual violence against women and girls and, more broadly, how to better protect the health of the victims of all forms of violence, particularly children.
One out of 4. As a physician myself and a father of 2 wonderful daughters, Anastasia and Sofia, 1 out of 4 is a statistic which scares the hell out of me. In our Region, 1 out of 4 girls before their 20th birthday will face – at least 1 time – intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. We don't hear them because they go to sleep terrified that people will not believe them, or they are terrified because of retaliation.
The health sector has such an important role to play in being aware, identifying the victims and protecting them. But for now, our European health systems are failing those women and girls. This is happening at a time when we see increasing gender inequalities in the Region. In many countries, there are gaps for girls and women – including refugees – in access to sexual and reproductive health services.
In all countries, there are stigma and discrimination, be they against women or men from migrant origins, or against [people of different] sexual orientations. Any country which has laws discriminating against people [on the basis of] sexual orientation de facto breaches the universal principle of inherent dignity of the individual.
I want to thank so much the Prime Minister of Spain, Mr Pedro Sanchez, whom I met thanks to Minister Monica Garcia. First, Mr Sanchez immediately agreed to help evacuate 30 children from Gaza, after which he committed to be my champion in the field of gender equality – very important at a time when we are now commemorating 30 years of the Beijing Platform for Action.
Actually, I was in Geneva last week with the Spanish Ambassador, discussing the Beijing commitments. When I was asking my colleagues, naively, why there will be no big conference 30 years later, the answer was quite sobering: if we [were to] organize such a conference now, the outcome declaration would be much weaker than 30 years ago. This is a very important topic for our attention.
Dear colleagues, I have now spoken about innovation. Let's turn shortly to the continuity of our ongoing work. Continuity does not mean stabilization. It means consolidation and making a big step forward. Success will only be obtained if we achieve universal health coverage and financial protection.
First and foremost, provide affordable access to both essential and innovative medicines. Here I would like to thank the Minister of Health of Austria, dear Minister Johannes Rauch, for very strong support to the Novel Medicines Platform, which remains very, very important. This public–private partnership brings, for the first time, Member States, industry, patients and payers together.
I also congratulate – like Dr Tedros did already – my good friend the Minister of Health of Latvia, Dr Hosams Abu Meri. I saw for myself that people in your country now pay 15–20% less for prescription medicines. It's amazing.
Congratulations.
And the same for my new friend the Minister of Health of North Macedonia, Dr Arben Taravari, for convening these great policy dialogues reviewing the list of reimbursable medicines together with your Prime Minister, whom I congratulated in Berlin.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very concerned about the lack of health-care professionals, and that's why I will continue to advocate for investment in the health workforce, retention, improved working conditions and lifelong learning.
Here I would like to thank the Minister of Health of Luxembourg, Ms Martine Deprez. Congratulations for working very closely together on a very comprehensive plan on human resources for health. Félicitations.
I will also continue to advocate for any strategies that optimize health worker performance by decreasing unnecessary burdens on health workers and filling gaps through machine learning, robotics, remote care and digital health applications.
We are going to collect the evidence to develop policies, norms and guidance on how European health systems can adopt artificial intelligence in a safe, ethical and trustworthy way, and we will be the guardians to leave no one behind by developing a European framework to measure digital health equity.
Ladies and gentlemen, my vision for the Region is to work with you to build resilient and sustainable health systems, where your people trust that they will have the right care at the right time, in the right place, by the right person, without being pushed into poverty due to ill health – which was the core of the 15th anniversary of the Tallinn Charter. Thank you very much to Minister Riina Sikkut for this amazing celebration. We put trust and transformation at the heart of the new health system vision, which I will present to you on Wednesday.
There is a clear deficit of trust – be it in health workers, people or politicians. There is a lot of fake news, and the only way to go forward is to co-create solutions with the people at the frontline, meaning health-care workers and patients.
Measuring progress will be very important to reach transformation. That's why we plan to work with all of you to revise the health system performance assessment framework. Many countries have approached us already to start to pilot it. With all of you, I commit to lead this Region with all the resources and the leverage [points] at my disposal to go through this transformation.
Here, I would like to thank in particular Professor Martin McKee from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who is gathering the evidence together with the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies to ensure our Region will remain the leader in bringing back trust in science, together with a parallel exercise to increase technical excellence in this Office. Technical excellence will be the North Star here at the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
My friends, as you hear all these ambitions and all these challenges, [you’ll agree that] it would be very nice to have a magic solution. As Director of Health Systems, I thought there was none, but actually, I also became a little wiser. There is a magic bullet which can address all these challenges at the same time – and even more. It's right in front of us. It is called primary health care.
If primary health care takes a central role in our policies, is well-staffed, is well financed, is digitalized according to modern norms and connected with community resources, it's the gateway to all these ambitions.
Again, a lot is happening. I have to congratulate you, dear Minister of Health of Lithuania, Professor Arūnas Dulkys. I saw for myself how you strengthen the role of family doctors and nurses in the integrated care model at the municipal level. Congratulations.
The same goes for my very good friend Minister Lončar [of Serbia], whom I can call now, we agreed, as we're very close friends, Zlatibor. Dear Zlatibor, congratulations on your personal attention to preventative services in primary health care, even calling the population to show up for their preventive checks. I have never seen this before.
This is fully in line with the Alma-Ata Declaration and the Astana Declaration. Thank you again, Dr Akmaral Alnazarova, for having agreed to expand our geographically dispersed office in primary health care as a global Centre of Excellence, and for the proposal by your President on the Coalition of Friends of Primary Health Care, working together with Dr Tedros and Dr Bruce Aylward.
Dear colleagues, as I finish my speech, [I’ll emphasize that] to tackle these current challenges and the unexpected, first and foremost, we have to address the underlying scandal of health inequity. COVID-19 laid bare the divide between the haves and the have-nots, highlighting the importance of equity. Equity has to be at the heart of everything we do in order to leave no one behind.
This is the central tenet of the EPW, and it is in this context that I would like to finish my speech with a quote by Hans Christian Andersen, the very popular Danish author of fairy tales: “The most wonderful thing in the world is to make somebody happy.”
In a world [where challenges are] compounded by self-interest, by destruction and war, Hans Christian reminds us of the incredible power each of us has to positively influence somebody's life. Let's never take this unique gift for granted.
Mange tak, thank you very much, merci beaucoup, Danke schön, spasibo vam bolshoe!