Chair of the APO board,
Esteemed board members,
Partners and colleagues
A good morning to you all.
Before I go any further, I would like to acknowledge Ms Rosemary McKay, the Chair of the APO Board. Rosemary has been a longtime champion of disability inclusion, ensuring the rights of people with disability are promoted and protected everywhere. I thank you for your service to uplift the most vulnerable amongst us.
Last year, the leadership of the WHO South-East Asia Region developed our Regional Roadmap for Results and Resilience. Co-created with our Member States, the Regional Roadmap guides our work for the duration of my term as Regional Director with five pillars:
Reinforcing mental health, well-being and quality of life for all
Reaffirming investment in women, girls, adolescents and vulnerable populations
Realizing access to technology and innovations
Raising capacity, knowledge management and research; and
Refining WHO’s leadership and performance
I am pleased to see that APO’s new strategy and business plan aligns and complements our Roadmap, both in approach, and in the thematic areas that it covers. There is much convergence on the technical areas of work, including issues such as equity and digital health and climate change resilience.
The three main principles of APO - generating, managing and brokering knowledge - allow for close collaboration with SEARO and academic institutions in the region. I am very pleased that some of the best institutions from our region have come together in multiple consortia to work with APO. These include academic institutions from India, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, as well as NGOs and government departments from Bhutan and Nepal.
I am also heartened to see collaborations with WPRO-based institutions. This bi-regional cooperation helps the quality of work, and expands the pool of good practices that can be learnt from in both regions.
It is important that we use this platform and build on the work it is doing. APO is using the power of the collective to develop better evidence, and we should use these outputs to enhance the normative advice that we provide.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the work that APO has done, in particular the publishing of over 20 country health system reviews for both WPRO and SEARO countries. These reviews provide in-depth analyses of health systems, and offer our Member States invaluable insights for policymaking. APO has also published over 25 policy briefs and comparative country studies, and I should point out that APO products are among the most downloaded products by both WPRO and SEARO.
The work that we do in public health is technical, but its impact is profoundly human. I would like to dwell on this human aspect for a moment – and in particular, the human aspect of how APO works.
As we look around us at this moment in time, we see a world which faces several crises. After decades of growing peace, we now face increasing war and conflict. Multilateralism is, perhaps, at its weakest point since the birth of the United Nations and the World Health Organization. And global public health is facing unprecedented strain, starved of resources and struggling to meet the needs of the day.
Against this backdrop, APO shows us a way forward. You represent a spirit of cooperation, collaboration and unity which is much needed in the world today. In you, we see the best and brightest of our community bridging language and culture, reaching across communities and countries to serve the greater good.
Your technical work is extremely valuable, and the example you set in how you work is invaluable.
As the South-East Asia Regional Office, we remain committed to continuing our support of APO through our own expertise and network.
Our partnership has already led to significant achievements, and we look forward to to continuing to address the challenges ahead together.
Thank you.