Dr Hanan Al Kuwari,
Ambassador Matthew Wilson, the incoming Chair,
Excellencies, Members of the EB, dear colleagues and friends,
First, my congratulations to Ambassador Wilson on your election as Chair. I look forward to working with you over the next year.
And my deep thanks to my sister Dr Hanan Al Kuwari for her leadership over the past year. Thank you so much. Shukran jazeelan.
I welcome the 12 new members of the Executive Board, and I look forward to working with you, and with all board members over the course of the next year.
I thank the Board for its work in preparing for, and executing, a very successful – and historic – World Health Assembly.
The adoption of the 14th General Programme of Work charts a course for global health for the next four years, with a commitment to promote, provide and protect the health of the world’s people.
The WHO Investment Round aims to mobilize the flexible and predictable funds needed to implement that strategy.
A number of countries have already pledged their support and have started contributing.
In addition, the package of amendments on the International Health Regulations that Member States adopted is an historic achievement and a strong signal that multilateralism is alive and well.
Member States also agreed on a path forward for the Pandemic Agreement;
And adopted decisions and resolutions on many key health issues, from AMR to transplantation and much more, but because of the other big agenda items, many resolutions and decisions have been masked, but there were many important milestones that have been agreed during this Assembly.
And I would like to thank Hanan my sister for her tenure during this very historic year, and you will be connected with those historic achievements. Thank you so much for your leadership again.
So, Member States accomplished a lot, and gave themselves a lot of work to do. All this brings more work as well.
The Secretariat is committed to supporting all Member States to do that work, actually.
And we’re also committed to continuing our journey of transformation, to make WHO more effective, efficient and accountable.
We will continue to move forward on implementing the recommendations of the Agile Member States Task Group, alongside the Secretariat Implementation Plan on reform.
In particular, our focus in the coming years is to strengthen our country offices to make sure we deliver the support that countries need to promote, provide and protect the health of their people.
Your work this week is important for guiding us in our efforts to serve Member States even better.
In addition to considering the outcomes of the Health Assembly, you will consider the report of the PBAC, the Standing Committee on Health Emergency Preparedness and Response, hosted partnerships and non-state actors in official relations with WHO.
Thank you all once again for your support for, and commitment to WHO, and to our shared vision of the highest attainable standard of health for all people, as a fundamental right.
I look forward to our discussion, and your guidance.
Chair, thank you and back to you.