WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the ninth meeting of the Working Group on Strengthening WHO Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies – 4 May 2022 - ISS-G20 Laboratorium Repository

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends, 

I am pleased to welcome you to the ninth meeting of the Working Group on Strengthening WHO Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies. 

Thank you all for your continuing commitment to, and engagement with, this very important process. 

You have had a very busy schedule since the establishment of this working group almost a year ago. 

Today, you will be finalizing a report with proposed actions for consideration by the World Health Assembly. 

I commend the spirit of inclusivity, transparency and consensus that has guided your work. 

I am confident that this approach will result in a report that is owned by all. 

The challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exploited are challenges for all of us. 

We must always remember that we are only as strong as the weakest link. 

This requires us to bridge the gaps between us, so that we can work together to make the world better prepared for the next pandemic or health emergency.

Your work is helping to lay the foundation to strengthen the global health architecture. 

Your report to the historic WHA Special Session late last year contributed to the establishment of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body for a new WHO accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. 

Your initial findings have triggered a process for potential targeted amendments to the International Health Regulations, to strengthen them and improve their implementation. 

Your deliberations have also stimulated Member States to ask the Secretariat to propose an effective, equitable, and coherent architecture for health emergency preparedness, response and resilience.

Your report to this year’s Health Assembly is only the first step.

To truly realize the mandate of this working group, and our collective responsibility to future generations, we must commit to the proposed actions that result from your work. Making commitments is not enough. We must follow through.   

With that in mind, I encourage you to craft proposed actions that are targeted, measurable and implementable. And of course, no one country or institution can do it alone.

Coordinated and complementary action, bolstered by long-term, sustainable investment, will keep us all safer. 

I thank you.

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