The 75th World Health Assembly will commence on May 21, 2022. The meet will be attended by the health ministers of countries across the globe.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization – WHO – Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, providing information about the meeting, stated, “The 75th World Health Assembly starts tomorrow. I look forward to meeting Heads of State and Health Ministers from around the globe in person. At a time when millions of people live in conflict zones, we are dedicating our #WHA75 to health and peace”.
Key features of the health assembly:
- A Director-General will be elected to lead the Organization for the next five years
- Access to health care; creating healthy environments for all, and pandemic preparedness will be discussed
- Peace & health is the Assembly theme
Moreover, a week-long G7 summit has been concluded, which also witnessed the presence of WHO leaders.
“The end of a long week working with WHO leaders, supporting #G7 Health Ministers meeting, simulating an emergent virus in the context of an actual emergent & spreading Monkeypox outbreak. Our work never stops WHO. This weekend, we continue as World Health Assembly #WHA75 begins”.
WHO Director-General shared three health financing priorities during the G7 meet, which are – investing in acting now to ensure equitable access to COVID19 tools, strengthening global pandemic preparedness for a safer future, and supporting sustainably financing WHO.
During his address, Tedros then highlighted that, as per the estimation of WHO and the World Bank, at least 31 billion US dollars are required every year for bolstering global health security.
In the meantime, he also expressed the international agency’s support for establishing a Financial Intermediary Fund at the World Bank to provide catalytic and gap-filling funding.
“WHO is committed to continuing to strengthen our governance, accountability, and efficiency. We look to the leadership of G7 countries to build a more equitable, inclusive, coherent and sustainably financed architecture for global health security”, underscores Tedros.
The full address of Tedros during the G7 summit can be read at – https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/director-general-s-speech-at-the-joint-working-session–g7-health-and-finance-ministers–strengthening-global-health-financing.