WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the Bahrain Vision Forum

GENEVA, 29 September 2020 /PRNewswire Policy/ -- Your Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain,

Your Excellency, Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister of Foreign Affairs,

António Guterres, United Nations Secretary General,

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

First of all, I would like to thank the Kingdom of Bahrain and His Royal Highness the Prime Minister for hosting this event, and for his leadership during the pandemic.

Thank you for bringing the UN community together every year, and for your commitment to multilateralism.

Your Royal Highness, we support your proposal to create a Friends of the Secretary-General on the amelioration of the negative impact of COVID-19 on the SDGs, which you have just announced. We will do everything to support you.

WHO is honoured to co-host this very important and timely event.

I would also like to use this opportunity to thank His Excellency Shaikh Hussam bin Isa Al Khalifa, the President of the Prime Minister's court, for your partnership with WHO over the last several years.

And my thanks also to Her Excellency Dr Faiqa Bint Saaed Al Saleh, Minister of Health of the Kingdom of Bahrain, for your leadership at home and abroad.

You are all painfully aware of the profound ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our present, and our future.

I was listening to the video from the children, and the children have been saying it very loud, and very, very clear. Thank you for preparing that video, which moved and touched us.

Beyond the suffering and death caused by the virus itself, the pandemic has caused severe disruptions to essential services for immunization, nutrition, noncommunicable diseases, family planning and more.

The hard-won gains we have made in recent decades are at risk.

And the impacts go far beyond health.

Livelihoods have been lost, the global economy is in recession, and geopolitical divisions have been deepened.

It has never been clearer that health is a political and economic choice.

The pandemic has highlighted and exploited the inequalities within and between countries.

The rich can afford to stay home and stay safe, while the poor must go out to work to feed their families.

The rich can clean their hands; many poor people lack clean water.

The rich have access to life-saving health care, while the poor do not.

Unfortunately, this is not a new story.

Every day, millions of people are exposed to sickness or poverty simply because of the conditions in which they live and work, or because the health services they need are not available, or because they can't afford to use them.

That's why universal health coverage is WHO's top priority.

We are working for a world in which all people can access the health services they need, without facing financial hardship, and Bahrain is a very good example and is a model in this respect.

But the challenge of equitable access to care is not just one for the future. It's one that we must address now, in many countries.

We cannot accept a world in which the rich have access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics, while the poor miss out.

Through the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and the COVAX Facility, we're working to ensure that doesn't happen.

67 high-income economies have formally joined the COVAX Facility, and another 34 are expected to sign, joining 92 lower-income countries who are eligible for financial support through Gavi.

Yesterday we also announced a new agreement that ensures low- and middle- income countries have access to new rapid antigen-based tests.

And we have also secured courses of dexamethasone – the only medicine shown to reduce the risk of death so far – for up to 4.5 million patients in lower-income countries.

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Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

There's no question that the COVID-19 pandemic is a serious setback to our collective efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

But we cannot allow it to become an excuse for failing to deliver on our commitments.

Quite the opposite: the pandemic has demonstrated why the SDGs are so important, and why we must pursue them with renewed focus and determination.

As countries recover and seek to build back better, there are three goals I believe they should focus on:

First, greater investment and leadership is needed for health system strengthening and health security.

We cannot return to the old cycle of panic and neglect.

Second, it is critical to strengthen not only national but also subnational investments in primary health care, public health services, and outbreak surveillance and response.

And finally, “building back better” means building back greener.

The pandemic has highlighted the intimate links between humans and the planet on which we depend. The children said it very well, by the way, in the video.

WHO recently published our “Manifesto for a Healthy and Green Recovery”, with policy prescriptions for natural resource protection, smart water and sanitation investments, renewable energy, healthy food systems, and liveable cities.

Last century, the horrors of two world wars gave birth to the realization that international cooperation is preferable to international conflict.

Perhaps no crisis since the Second World War has shown more clearly why the United Nations is needed, and that's why there is strong support from Bahrain, and His Royal Highness, and the whole government.

My hope is that the defining crisis of our age will likewise remind all people that the best way forward – the only way forward – is together.

That's why from WHO we always say solidarity, solidarity, solidarity. That's the answer.

Thank you so much again for co-hosting. This has been a great privilege and honour for WHO.

Shukraan jazeelan, Bahrain. Shukraan jazeelan.

SOURCE World Health Organization (WHO)