Your Excellencies Ministers of Health and Heads of Delegations,

Director-General,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my honour and pleasure to welcome you to the 71st session of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean.

This is my first Regional Committee as Regional Director, and I would like to start by thanking our outgoing Chair, His Excellency Dr Ali Haji Adam Abubakar, Minister of Health and Human Services of Somalia. Dr Ali.

I thank our gracious hosts, the Government of Qatar. They have engaged very energetically at every stage of preparations for this meeting, led by Her Excellency the Minister of Public Health, Dr Hanan Al-Kuwari.

And let me also thank all of you for joining the session. I am delighted to see so many people here and I am looking forward to a lively and fruitful few days.

At the same time, of course, we must not forget all those who were unable to join us. Sadly, some of our dearly valued colleagues and partners could not travel safely from their countries.

I am in daily contact with colleagues doing amazing work in the middle of some truly terrible situations. I say to them…

Your courage, professionalism and dedication are incredible.

You are an inspiration to all of us.

You may not be with us in person, but please know this: You are always on our minds.

And you are always, always in our hearts. 

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This Regional Committee session is a crucial opportunity to discuss the emergencies and other major health challenges in our Region.

There will be an update on health emergencies tomorrow including a special briefing on the situation in Palestine, and there will be an update on our ongoing efforts to rid the world of polio.

And I know that the many crises and challenges in the Region will also loom large in discussions throughout this session – in plenaries, side meetings and conversations.

We need to talk frankly about the problems that face us. And we will.

At the same time, we simply cannot afford to get downhearted.

This Committee is the pre-eminent platform for public health policy discussions in our Region.

When we all come together like this, we are uniquely well placed to drive positive change.

We have a packed agenda ahead of us, and I am excited to be working with you all to move it forward.

We will be spending much of today and also tomorrow morning discussing our big-picture plans for the next four years, including a new strategic operational plan for WHO in the Region and three flagship initiatives.

I will have plenty more to say about those later today and tomorrow, but now I would like to highlight some other key items of business for the coming days.

We are presenting four technical papers to Your Excellencies, to accelerate progress in some key areas.

Firstly, building on our Regional Trauma Initiative, we are proposing a new operational framework for addressing physical trauma in humanitarian settings.

We are pioneers in this area. The Regional Trauma Initiative is already saving lives through the methodical application of some basic interventions.

Implementing the proposed framework could save thousands more.

I urge you to support it.

We have also developed a new regional action plan to enhance mental health and psychosocial support in emergencies.

More than a fifth of all people exposed to adversity are likely to have a mental health condition.

But there are huge gaps in mental health services, especially in fragile and conflict-affected situations.

This is a problem we must tackle, and I am keen to hear your thoughts.

Our third technical paper examines how we can galvanize the response to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the Region.

As you all know, AMR is one of the biggest threats to health and development globally.

And as the United Nations General Assembly recognized just last month at its Second High-Level Meeting on AMR, we are not doing enough to tackle this threat.

So we are looking to harness momentum from the High-Level Meeting to step up work on AMR in the Region, and in particular to strengthen collaborative action across sectors.

The discussion during this Regional Committee will be essential preparation for the upcoming Ministerial Summit in Saudi Arabia next month.

Last but most certainly not least, we will be presenting on how to improve health information systems across the Region.

Accurate, timely and comprehensive data are critical to enable informed decision-making.

Some countries have made fantastic advances in their health information systems in recent years, but we need to scale up progress and ensure that we implement international standards for data sharing.

So please join our technical session on that and our panel discussion on the potential advantages and challenges of using artificial intelligence for health.

Your Excellencies,

Those are just some of the major technical items that we will consider in the coming days.

I invite you to study the documents available online for more information.

As usual, we will be presenting draft resolutions on these and other items for the Committee’s consideration in due course.

WHO belongs to its Member States. We are working with Your Excellencies; we are accountable to you; and we look to you to set our strategic direction.

This Regional Committee session is a fundamental part of the governance mechanisms and processes that keep WHO aligned with the needs and priorities of Member States.

Formal governance through reports, resolutions and decisions will be at the heart of our work during the session.

But of course, Regional Committee includes so much more, too.

It is our chance to get together with partners from across the Region and beyond.

To share our experiences, ideas and sometimes also fears.

To renew friendships and make new ones.

And most importantly, to renew our shared commitment to improving the health and well-being of everyone in our Region.

I am looking forward to talking to as many of you as possible – and to listening to you.

On Wednesday evening in Qatar’s spectacular Museum of Islamic Art we are hosting our special event and I hope to see you all there.

And I am sure that you will all find plenty of things to interest and inspire you in the days ahead.

We are going to continue this morning with a heavy dose of inspiration, including speeches from my dear colleague Dr Tedros, Her Excellency Dr Hanan and the amazing Professor Izzeldin Abuelaish.

But before that, we have a short video.

I hope you enjoy it.

And let us all enjoy a peaceful and productive Regional Committee session.