Excellencies, Member State Representatives and colleagues,
Good morning and welcome to this High-Level Preparatory Meeting (HLP) for the 78th Session of the WHO Regional Committee (RC) for South-East Asia.
It is my privilege to address you as the Officer-in-Charge of the South-East Asia Regional Office. In this interim role, I am here to provide stability and steadiness, making sure that our work continues uninterrupted.
I look forward to meeting all our Member States in the coming days, and in the meantime I remain available to you and your colleagues for anything you may need.
As we all know, the global public health community faces challenges at present. Yet even as we face funding cuts and increasing unilateralism, we know that our work is more needed than ever.
We must rise to the occasion and meet the high expectations of us - through clearly defined priorities, and by showing greater accountability and measurable impact.
This HLP Meeting is an advisory body meant to ensure a smooth and successful Regional Committee, through candid discussions among you - our Member States. We trust you will have detailed deliberations on all RC agenda items and will develop consensus by bridging your different country positions.
The outcomes and recommendations will be submitted to the Regional Committee (RC), item by item, for its consideration and decision.
Given the present global health landscape, it is more important than ever to ensure the engagement of policymakers, and of the highest levels of political leadership of the Ministries of Health of our Member States.
I urge and encourage their participation at the RC, to reflect the political commitment of your country towards the health and wellbeing of your people.
This will also deepen the dialogue between health authorities and lawmakers across our region, and offer new avenues of partnership and cooperation.
I now ask you to please refer to the Provisional Agenda for this Meeting which has been provided to you. As you can see, over the next two days we will cover 6 main agenda items, covering 22 sub-items.
I will take us through some of the notable updates on these items.
One of the most important items is Agenda 2 - the Ministerial Roundtable on “Healthy Ageing through strengthened Primary Health Care”.
We know that South-East Asia has an ageing population, and countries must ensure that their health and social systems are ready for this demographic shift.
SEARO and our Member States have co-developed the Regional Strategy on Healthy Ageing (2024–2030). This is structured around four strategic priorities:
(1) combating ageism
(2) fostering age-friendly environments
(3) delivering integrated, person-centred care, and
(4) ensuring access to long-term care, when needed.
Sustained policy action is needed to reorient systems to address the complex and evolving needs of older people.
Member States have an opportunity to strengthen PHC as a foundation for delivering integrated, affordable, person-centred continuum of health and social care that upholds the health, dignity and rights of older people.
Member States are encouraged to integrate care services that optimize functional ability, enabling older people to continue doing what they value and to age in place.
Excellencies and representatives,
I request you to turn Agenda item 3 - Policy and technical matters – where we have selected four technical matters.
The first is “Annual report on monitoring progress on UHC and health-related SDGs”.
This report is mandated by the 70th session of the RC in 2017. This year we are presenting the 10th annual report, with the latest evidence on the progress towards UHC via SDG target 3.8.
The theme of this year’s report is the regional progress on ‘Strengthening the role of the health sector for improving civil registration and vital statistics in the SE Asia Region (2015–2024)’.
The second item is “Expansion of the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund (SEARHEF).” SEARHEF is, as you know, an operational fund to provide support to the health sector response of Member States during emergencies.
The 77th session of the RC endorsed:
the increase in the corpus of the Fund to US$ 3 million, coming into force from the 2026–2027 biennium;
to rollover unspent balances to the subsequent biennium; and
to merge the Response Stream and Preparedness Streams for improved efficiency.
The Regional Committee also advised the Secretariat to revise the policies and business rules of SEARHEF, in consultation with the SEARHEF Working Group. The revised draft policy and business rules is now tabled at this HLP Meeting for review and recommendations.
The third priority matter is “Aligning regional policy actions with global commitments: Accelerating the fight against AMR in the WHO South-east Asia Region”.
The Member States of South-East Asia have demonstrated early and strong political commitment to address AMR. However, implementation remains uneven due to fragmented coordination, limited domestic financing, and weak integration across sectors.
To address this complex public health threat, the Regional Office, in consultation with Member States, has drafted a Regional Roadmap to accelerate actions on AMR in the Region. This is being presented at this Meeting, for your review and recommendations.
The last sub-item under Agenda 3 is “Regional Strategic Framework for combating smokeless tobacco, novel nicotine products and areca nut in the WHO South-East Asia Region”.
Tobacco use remains the single most important modifiable risk factor for NCDs in the region.
The Secretariat, in consultation with Member States and technical experts, is developing a Regional Strategic Framework to address smokeless tobacco, novel nicotine products and areca nut. It is inviting Member States to provide input and guidance, to ensure relevance, feasibility, and alignment with national contexts and priorities.
The Secretariat will make a detailed presentation on each of these four sub-items during the course of this meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Under Agenda item 4, progress reports on nine different Regional Committee Resolutions will be presented.
For each of these, the working paper outlines progress reports, and the Secretariat will also make detailed presentations.
I ask you now to turn to Agenda item 5, - Governing Body matters, under which we have three key sub-items for discussion.
The first is sub-item 5.1 – Key issues arising out of the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly and the 156th and 157th sessions of the WHO Executive Board. These have been consolidated into a working paper, highlighting the important implications of these issues at the Regional level.
Sub-item 5.2 relates to the Draft Provisional Agenda of the 158th Session of the WHO Executive Board. This session will be convened from 2nd to 7th February 2026, at our WHO headquarters in Geneva.
If any Member State would like to propose include an item in this Draft Provisional Agenda, it should reach the Director-General no later than 18 September 2025, and should be accompanied by an explanatory memorandum.
Sub-item 5.3 is Process for the nomination and appointment of Regional Directors. The Executive Board has called on the Regional Committees to consider the measures in the Annex to the document EB157/8, to enhance the transparency, accountability and integrity of the election process of Regional Directors.
Under Agenda Item 6, Management and Governance matters, we have three sub-items.
Sub-item 6.1 is the status of our South-East Asia Regional Office Building. Regular updates on the progress of the new building have been presented to Member States during the HLP and Regional Committees since 2015.
The Secretariat is working closely with the Government of India on the reconstruction project. The overall project deadline for completion of all building activities has been extended to the last quarter of 2025.
Sub-item 6.2 is the Evaluation of the Annual Report. I am pleased that our region is committed to advancing the culture of evaluation. I urge our Member States to ensure the development of national-level evaluation capacity, especially in the public health sector.
Agenda 6.3 is the Amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia, where I urge Member States to consider the proposed Amendments.
In Agenda item 7, two standard items under Special Programmes will be presented.
The first is the UNICEF / UNDP / World Bank / WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases: Joint Coordinating Board (JCB). WHO is the executing agency of this.
The summary report on attendance of Member States to the 48th meeting of the JCB (in June 2025) is presented for noting.
The second Special Programme sub-item is the UNDP / UNFPA / UNICEF / WHO / World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction: Policy and Coordination Committee (PCC).
Three of our Member States – India, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste – are Category 2 members of this Policy and Coordination Committee (PCC).
The Executive Summary of the report of attendance of Member States to the 38th meeting of the PCC (in April 2025) is presented for noting.
Timor-Leste will be finishing its three-year term as a PCC Member from our region on 31 December 2025. The HLP Meeting is requested to consider recommending another Member State to serve on the PCC, in Category 2, for another three-year term starting 1 January 2026.
Excellencies and representatives,
For the purposes of this HLP meeting, working papers have been prepared on each Agenda item, along with presentations that the Secretariat will make for ease of reference.
I am confident that after in-depth discussions, you will arrive at unanimous recommendations for the consideration of the Regional Committee in October.
The Secretariat remains available with any support or assistance you may require.
As you know, our region is home to 2 billion people - a quarter of humanity. Our approach embraces diversity, and is rooted in an inclusive, people-first philosophy.
The Secretariat will work together with Member States and partners to ensure more equitable, people-centered health systems. We are united in our goal of a Region where the fundamental human right of health is enjoyed by everyone.
On that note, I wish you a successful and productive High-Level Preparatory Meeting.
Thank you.