Tuesday, 17 December 2024

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the WHO Academy opening ceremony

17 December 2024

Your Excellency President Macron,

Secretary-General Louise Mushikiwabo,

Honourable Ministers,

Leaders of the City, Métropole, and Region,

Excellencies, esteemed guests, dear colleagues and friends,

Bonjour à toutes et à tous, et bienvenue à l’Académie de l’OMS.

Monsieur le Président, let me begin by expressing my deepest condolences and solidarity with the people of Mayotte, after the devastation brought by Cyclone Chido.

I thank France for its strong commitment to the success of the WHO Academy, and especially to His Excellency President Macron, for his personal engagement and leadership since our very first conversation.

I can trace the idea for the WHO Academy back to my time as Minister of Health in Ethiopia, when we wanted to transform the country’s health system, and I was looking for guidance on how to do it.

It turned out WHO had exactly what I was looking for – but it wasn’t WHO that told me about it; I only found it by googling.

My experience is not unique.

WHO is known for its world-class technical products – guidelines, norms and standards – but translating them into real-world action has often been hindered by a lack of institutionalized training.

Our products sometimes sit unused on shelves or unopened in email inboxes.

While WHO has rich knowledge and expertise, until now we have had no systematic or institutionalized way of sharing it.

And so the idea for the WHO Academy was born.

Its mission is simple but ambitious: a new institution to equip health and care workers, policymakers and the WHO workforce with the skills and competencies they need to deliver health for all, including for epidemics, pandemics and other emerging threats.

The Academy is one of more than 50 initiatives in a comprehensive set of reforms that we have been implementing since 2017, to make WHO more effective, efficient and responsive to the needs, risks, and challenges that countries face.

In 2018, during the G20 meeting in Argentina, I had a chance meeting in a corridor with President Macron, and mentioned to him our idea for the WHO Academy. It didn’t take more than two minutes.

He said this is very important – too important to discuss in a corridor, so I would be pleased to invite you to the Elysée to discuss it seriously.

In 2019 we signed a letter of intent to establish it in Lyon; in 2021 we broke ground, and today we open the doors of the WHO Academy together.

I thank the Region of Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, the Metropole of Lyon, the City of Lyon and the Government of France for their support in the construction of this stunning building.

Thanks also to our generous donors, and to the more-than 30 countries that have joined the Academy Group of Friends, which was founded by France, Indonesia, Japan, Rwanda, and Qatar at the last World Health Assembly.

The WHO Academy will create high-quality, learner-oriented courses, based on the priorities of WHO and our Member States.

It will build a global learning ecosystem that promotes lifelong learning practices at WHO and across the health sector.

It will develop and disseminate quality standards in health education.

By 2028, the Academy aims to train three million health workers worldwide.

Here in Lyon, the primary focus of the WHO Academy Campus will be on training of trainers and policy makers from all corners of the world.

The Academy will deploy cutting-edge technology, such as a world class simulation centre that replicates real-world situations;

An Emergency Operations Centre training room, to learn and share good practices on emergency management;

And virtual reality tools for an immersive experience.

But the role of the Academy won’t be limited to its activities in Lyon.

We want the Academy to be accessible to health workers in every corner of the world.

It will offer an online learning platform with free access to world-class courses on priority health topics.

Designed with a focus on inclusion and accessibility, the platform will reflect our commitment to empowering learners from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

The Academy opens today but its work has already started.

More than 5,000 learners from 172 countries have already registered in the learning platform, accessing the first 37 courses.

Hundreds of additional courses will be soon hosted on the platform, in the six WHO official languages, and many more.

In-person workshops have already been delivered in Lyon and in the field, including in Africa, for eight countries.

Dear colleagues and friends, the Academy cannot succeed alone.

Developing such a unique learning ecosystem requires partnerships and collaboration.

Your support will enable the WHO Academy to drive lifelong learning in health as a global priority.

Together, we can shape the world’s first global health learning hub and contribute to WHO’s objective of saving 40 million lives over the next four years.

Your investment in the WHO Academy is an investment in equity, health and education.

But ultimately, it’s an investment in people, for a healthier, safer, fairer future for all.

Merci beaucoup.

Media contacts:
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