World Health Organization has hailed the “historic” commitment shown by global leaders, at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, to strengthen the international cooperation, coordination, governance.
According to the statement released by the World Health Body, this commitment also include investment needed to prevent a repeat of the devastating health and socioeconomic impact caused by COVID-19, make the world better prepared for future pandemics.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedro Ghebreyesus in his reaction said he welcomed this commitment by world leaders to provide the political support and direction needed so that WHO, governments and all involved can protect people’s health and take concrete steps towards investing in local capacities, ensuring equity and supporting the global emergency health architecture that the world needs.”
He added that this is the first-ever head of state summit on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response is a historic milestone in the urgent drive to make all people of the world safer, and better protected from the devastating impacts of pandemics.
According to him, “The lived experience of people who suffered through the COVID-19 pandemic must be at the forefront of our minds going forward in order to realize the clear direction provided by world leaders.
“We must learn how to protect our communities better and to engage, inform and empower them to be part of the solution. We need to build stronger clinical care systems that can save lives.
“Doing so requires concrete actions to ensure equitable access to medical countermeasures, sustainable and adequate financing, empowered engaged communities and robust, trained and equipped health workers.
“The devastating impacts of COVID-19 demonstrated why the world needs a more collaborative, cohesive and equitable approach to preventing, preparing for and responding to pandemics,” said Dr Tedros.
WHO DG said governments and multilateral partners have already commenced building the foundations for a safer world, with establishment of the Pandemic Fund, the WHO Hub for Pandemic, Epidemic Intelligence, the WHO BioHub to voluntarily share novel biological materials, and the mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub.
However, Dr Tedros added that the political declaration approved on Wednesday called for further strengthening of the global health emergency architecture to better protect the world from a repeat of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, The political declaration, approved by Mr Dennis Francis, President of the 78th United Nations General Assembly, and the result of negotiations under able leadership of Ambassadors Gilad Erdan of Israel and Omar Hilale of Morocco, underscored the pivotal role played by the Health Body.
As the “directing and coordinating authority on international health,” the need to “commit further sustainable financing that provides adequate and predictable funding to the World Health Organization, which enables it to have the resources needed to fulfil its core functions.”
