Excellencies, Heads of UN agencies, partners and colleagues from across the Region,
Warm greetings and a very happy World Health Day to you all.
It is a pleasure to have so many of you with us today, and I take this opportunity to appreciate and commend the tremendous efforts you have made to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and meet this once-in-a-generation challenge.
It is now well over a year since WHO declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and since then you have acted with speed, scale and solidarity to control and suppress spread, strengthen and maintain health services, and support all people to stay safe, healthy and well.
Across the Region, a new wave of infection is spreading. Between 22 and 28 March the Region reported a 46% increase in cases compared with the previous week, and that is on top of the 50% increase recorded the week before.
Together, we must press ahead and strengthen the basic public health measures that we know work, while also accelerating vaccine rollouts.
Nearly 91 million people in the Region have now received their first dose and more than 15 million have received both doses. In the last seven days alone 24 million doses have been administered, demonstrating the Region’s remarkable capacity to efficiently implement mass vaccination campaigns.
As we rise to meet this latest challenge, I urge you to continue to think ahead, with a focus on advancing health equity and building a fairer and healthier world – the theme of this year’s World Health Day.
Equity and fairness are values that we in the South-East Asia Region have for many years championed through our eight Flagship Priorities and across all programme areas.
Health service coverage in the Region is now on average above 63% as compared with 49% a decade ago.
The density of health workers – around 70% of whom are women – has substantively increased, with nine countries now above the first WHO threshold, compared with six in 2014.
The Region continues to make rapid and sustained progress against diseases of poverty and marginalization.
Since 2015 countries have increased TB treatment coverage by more than 30% and raised case notification from 2.6 million to 3.6 million.
Between 2010 and 2019 the Region reduced new HIV infections by 23.8% and AIDS-related deaths by 26.7%.
The Region is on track to achieve the General Programme of Work (GPW) target of a 30% reduction in maternal and child mortality by 2023 and has met and surpassed the GPW target on the proportion of women of reproductive age whose family planning needs are satisfied.
Our battle against neglected tropical diseases – which since 2014 has been a Flagship Priority – continues to significantly improve the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable, enabling whole communities to thrive and prosper.
I am inspired that countries have drawn on this momentum and advanced health equity as a core feature of the Region’s COVID-19 response, reflected most recently in vaccine rollouts.
Commendably, all countries have prioritized health and frontline workers, older persons and people with co-morbidities, in alignment with SAGE recommendations.
For well over a year now, countries have implemented national preparedness and response plans that are equity-oriented, gender-responsive and human rights-focused, and have made extraordinary efforts to protect vulnerable groups and ensure they have access to COVID-19 testing and treatment, as well as essential health services.
Intensified community engagement, including through women-led organizations, has been a hallmark of the response, drawing on the Region’s many past successes, such as against polio and maternal and neonatal tetanus.
All countries have mobilized whole-of-government, whole-of-society responses that advance the core principle of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda: Leave no one behind.
The Region’s Declaration on the Collective Response to COVID-19 must continue to inform national response efforts as vaccine rollouts proceed and we strengthen basic public health measures.
My message to you today is to continue to do all you can to sustain and accelerate momentum to advance health equity and ensure that all people have living and working conditions that are conducive to lifelong health and well-being.
Together, we must build on our successes and take every chance possible to identify and remedy preventable social and economic inequities that impede the right of everyone, everywhere, to achieve the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.
First, we must work hand in hand with affected communities and individuals to address the root causes of inequities and implement solutions.
The whole-of-government, whole-of-society approaches that countries have mobilized to respond to the pandemic must now be applied to address priority diseases and accelerate progress towards universal health coverage, one of the Region’s Flagship Priorities and the key to achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, which will in turn advance progress on several other SDGs.
Second, we must enhance the collection and use of timely and reliable health data that is disaggregated by gender, age, income, education, migratory status and disability among other factors.
The Region’s WHO-supported Health Information Platform, which provides an integrated database of country progress across a range of indicators, must continue to be leveraged to close gaps and eliminate disparities.
Third, we must tackle the social determinants of health while also increasing investments in primary health care.
All people require access to clean water and air, income and social protection, and food security among other environmental and public policy goods, which can best be secured through a “health-in-all-policies” approach that promotes cross-sectoral buy-in.
WHO’s new operational framework for primary health care must be implemented based on each country’s context, for which sustained and scaled up investments are required, even amid intense fiscal pressures.
Fourth, we must continue to act beyond national borders and strengthen regional and global health security.
You are by now well familiar with the fact that no one is safe from COVID-19 until everyone is safe. But this also applies to the many other health threats we face, from antimicrobial resistance and pandemic influenza, to multi-drug- and rifampicin-resistant TB, and biological and chemical agents.
For a healthier and more health-secure future, the Region must achieve full compliance with the International Health Regulations and ensure that all streams of the South-East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund are fully funded. And we must work towards a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response.
Excellencies, partners and friends,
COVID-19 is just the latest disease to expose, exploit and exacerbate inequities that negatively impact health and socioeconomic outcomes between and among vulnerable groups.
Your efforts over the course of the pandemic to protect the most vulnerable first have prevented outcomes that could have been many, many times worse.
In recognition of the message of this year’s World Health Day, and in fulfilment of the Region’s Declaration on the Collective Response to COVID-19, we must draw on our momentum to reduce and ultimately end all inequities and accelerate towards the Region’s Flagship Priorities and the SDG targets.
For a fairer and healthier Region and world, together we must dare to be bold and achieve our vision.
I once again wish you a very happy World Health Day and look forward to the coming programme.