Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Votre Excellence Président Faure Gnassingbé de la République du Togo ;
Prof. Mijiyawa Moustafa, Ministre de la santé et de l’hygiène publique et de l’accès universel aux soins du Togo, cher collègue ;
Honorable Prof. Benjamin Hounkpatin, Ministre de la santé du Bénin et Premier vice-président de la soixante-dixième session du Comité régional et cher frère ;
Honorables Ministres de la santé et chefs de délégation ;
Dr Margaret Agama-Anyetei, Acting Director of Health & Humanitarian Affairs, representing Madam Amira Elfadil, the Commissioner for Social Affairs of the African Union;
Chers collègues d’institutions du système des Nations Unies et chers partenaires ;
Distingués invités et chers représentants des médias ;
Chers collègues,
Je suis très heureuse de vous souhaiter la bienvenue à la soixante et onzième session du Comité régional de l’OMS pour l’Afrique.
Excellence Monsieur le Président Gnassingbé, merci infiniment de l’insigne honneur que vous nous faites en rehaussant de votre distinguée présence l’éclat de cette réunion importante. Je tiens à vous assurer que nous viendrons à Lomé dès que la pandémie sera terminée, l'année prochaine si Dieu le veut.
Je tiens à exprimer toute mon appréciation au Ministre de la santé et au Gouvernement de la République du Togo pour leur engagement actif au cours des préparatifs de la présente session.
Je tiens aussi à remercier les vice-présidents de la soixante-dixième session du Comité régional : j’ai cité mon frère le Prof. Benjamin Hounkpatin, Ministre de la santé du Bénin ; et ma sœur la Dre Lia Tadesse, Ministre de la santé d’Éthiopie. Nous avons grandement profité de votre leadership et de votre disponibilité lors des préparatifs des sessions des organes directeurs.
Pour la deuxième année consécutive, notre réunion se tient de façon virtuelle à cause de la situation actuelle marquée par la pandémie de COVID-19. Nous avons tous acquis de nouvelles compétences et de nouvelles méthodes de travail au cours de l’année et demie qui vient de s’écouler.
Cette pandémie continue d’éprouver notre détermination collective et notre créativité, ainsi que la capacité de solidarité aux niveaux local et international, car l’humanité est confrontée à un ennemi commun.
Je félicite les gouvernements africains pour leur travail inlassable. De même, Mesdames et Messieurs les Ministres, je remercie par votre intermédiaire les chefs d’État pour leur leadership solide dans la riposte à ce virus et dans la consolidation des interventions ciblant les autres priorités.
As WHO, we are working with you around the clock, to respond to COVID-19 and to ensure that we do not lose ground on hard-fought gains achieved over many years.
Through the Access to COVID-19 Tools, or ACT, Accelerator platform, the COVAX Facility has delivered 40 million vaccine doses to African countries. This is a small fraction of the doses needed across the continent to protect people from severe COVID-19 illness and death. We deeply regret the delays and difficulties in keeping to agreements, due to unforeseen factors as the pandemic unfolded. We have indeed learned many lessons.
We are strongly advocating at the regional and global levels for greater dose sharing and the transfer of technology, and we are seeing an emerging sense of urgency to get things done. I urge you to ensure that the required human, material and financial resources are on the ground ahead of time; to get people vaccinated when the shipments of vaccines arrive and to reduce wastage.
I was excited to attend the launch event announcing the establishment of a hub for technology transfer of mRNA vaccines in South Africa. This work needs to expand to serve broader vaccine needs.
In this, I ask for your continuous help, Honourable Ministers, to advocate for companies and governments to make vaccines, and the know-how needed to produce them, available to those who need them most.
Your support is vital to draw attention to policies that further exacerbate inequities, such as restrictions on movement and travel, for citizens coming from continents that have been denied fair access to life-saving vaccines by inequitable global supply systems.
COVID-19 presents both an opportunity and a stark warning of the need to re-think systems that reinforce injustices, and to invest more in building a healthier, fairer world.
The pandemic has sparked a movement among Member States to develop a pandemic treaty for international commitment to invest in preparedness. This will go some way to ensuring Member States fulfil their obligations under the International Health Regulations.
In the African Region, we face more outbreaks each year than any other WHO region, and so it is crucial that African perspectives are brought forward in these negotiations.
We have high expectations of the discussions, reignited by the pandemic, around the sustainable financing of WHO, among ever-expanding responsibilities, to ensure our Organization has adequate resources to deliver on its mandate. In these global discussions, African representatives have made a strong case for including equity as a criterion in funding allocations.
Excellencies, Honourable Ministers and delegates:
You, our Member States, are leading the way with tangible achievements that show that health is a good investment.
I’d like to commend countries and the governments of Togo and Cote d’Ivoire for eliminating human African trypanosomiasis in the past year, and the Gambia for eliminating trachoma as a public health problem.
Tomorrow we will consider priorities on polio transition, a year on from the remarkable milestone of kicking wild poliovirus out of the Region. I remember how at the end of that discussion we danced collectively across our screens in celebration of that remarkable achievement. Almost 100 million children have been vaccinated since campaigns resumed in July 2020, after a pause due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Unfortunately, the pandemic has disrupted the production of novel oral polio vaccine that was to be used in synchronized campaigns across West and Central Africa; these plans are therefore being adjusted accordingly.
We must acknowledge that African countries are dealing with longstanding challenges, in addressing priority diseases and promoting health.
These include the constant need to put out the fires of outbreaks and other emergencies, distracting from longer-term action to build resilient health systems.
Several African countries are skilfully navigating multiple threats. Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo swiftly contained outbreaks of Ebola. Guinea has launched a full-throttled response to West Africa’s first case of Marburg virus disease, working on preparedness with neighbouring countries and has also quickly contained an outbreak of Lassa fever.
Countries are also confronting humanitarian crises, including in Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique and countries in the Sahel region. Action on health is imperative as part of the broader response and I commend the ministers and governments for all their efforts to ensure that the health needs of populations are addressed despite these difficulties.
Approaches and investments are needed, that both facilitate a rapid response to external shocks, whilst building local capacities to enhance resilience and prepare for the next threat.
Prioritization amid many competing priorities is a huge challenge, with funding from external sources often deciding the focus.
Looking forward, governments and communities need to be firmly in the driver’s seat to push for changes that are evidence-based, relevant and that respond to the greatest needs. And I’d like here to commend the determined collective actions coordinated at the African Union of African Heads of States, African governments, African Ministers of Health in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and in making progress towards establishing the African Medicines Agency.
We are also working more broadly to re-imagine strategies for priority diseases, learning from the all-of-society, multisectoral response to COVID-19 using primary health care as a key strategy.
We are moving to more integrated approaches, as demonstrated for example in the regional Framework for an integrated multisectoral response to TB, HIV, Sexual Transmitted Infections and hepatitis, which will be discussed in this session of the Regional Committee. The pandemic has reinforced our direction, which we had already embarked on in reorganising the Regional Office and our country teams for better integration of all our efforts.
More investment is also imperative to ensure data and information shape policies and decisions, including using technology and exploring big data, making sure delivery of interventions is guided by expertise, with monitoring for quality assurance and outcomes.
As your Secretariat, we are continuously adjusting to provide better support in these areas, as part of WHO’s Transformation.
We are reinforcing country office capacities in response to your recommendations to increase WHO’s country focus.
To bridge the current funding gap for staffing, multi-country assignment teams are being deployed as a transitional measure to ensure that Member States can readily access WHO’s technical support across different programme areas.
In the “new normal” working environment of COVID-19, we have shifted to approaches that expand our reach and engage more people as health advocates. At the same time, our staff are on the ground, working with your teams to share health messages, trace contacts and implement other key interventions.
In the coming year, Honourable Ministers, we can expect that intensified action to respond to COVID-19, particularly rolling out the vaccines, will remain a central part of our work. The response to the pandemic and to other epidemics must link with building resilient health systems
As WHO, we will continue to support your efforts to prepare for and respond to emergencies, and ultimately to attain Universal Health Coverage.
So, in closing, I would like to reassure you of WHO’s total commitment to working with you to realize good health for all people in Africa, and globally.
I look forward to strategic and action-focused discussions over the next three days and I thank you very much for your attention.