Monday, 18 May 2026

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the 79th World Health Assembly high-level welcome – 18 May 2026

https://www.who.int/news-room/speeches/item/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-79th-world-health-assembly-high-level-welcome---18-may-2026

18 May 2026 - Geneva

Your Excellency John Mahama, President of Ghana,

Your Excellency Elisabeth Baume-Schneider, Federal Councillor of the Swiss Confederation,

President of the 79^th World Health Assembly, Dr Victor Atallah Lajam,

UNOG Director-General Tatiana Valovaya,

Excellencies, Honourable Ministers and heads of delegation,

Dear colleagues and friends,

Good morning and welcome.

My thanks to Your Excellency Councillor Baume-Schneider for your warm welcome, and for Switzerland’s continued hospitality in hosting WHO and the World Health Assembly.

My thanks also to Your Excellency President Mahama for honouring us with your presence, and for your inspiring message today.

Thank you for your leadership over the past year, especially in launching the Accra Reset at the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in August – where I was honoured to join you.

I would also like to thank the President of Syria, the Prime Minister of Barbados and the Secretary-General for their messages today.

This time last week I was in Spain, where we had just completed the successful disembarkation and repatriation of the passengers aboard the MV Hondius.

I thank His Excellency Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Minister Mónica García Gómez, who is with us today, for their outstanding leadership and partnership in response to the hantavirus outbreak. Muchas gracias, Minister.

His Excellency Prime Minister Sánchez will join us this afternoon, and I look forward to welcoming him.

And as you know, yesterday I declared a public health emergency of international concern over the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has already spread to Uganda.

I will say more about both outbreaks – hantavirus and Ebola – in my address to Member States this afternoon, which is the technical report.

They are just the latest crises in our troubled world.

From conflicts to economic crises to climate change and aid cuts, we live in difficult, dangerous and divisive times.

As you all know, WHO has itself been through a difficult period as a result of sudden and steep cuts to our funding.

Many people have questions about the impact of those cuts for the future of WHO. They want to know what’s going on.

Today, I want to address those concerns by telling you what we’ve done, what we’re doing, and what we will do to build a stable and resilient WHO, and secure its future.

In fact, that work did not begin last year. It began nine years ago, when we started the WHO Transformation – the most ambitious reform agenda in the Organization’s history, because we knew such a scenario could happen.

There are dozens of ways in which WHO has transformed, and continues to transform, to meet the changing needs of Member States.

Today I would like to highlight just three, among a long list of changes we’re trying to make:

The changes we made to our core normative and technical functions;

The changes we made to our work in emergencies;

And the changes we made to our financial model.

I will also update you on our restructuring and our work on reform of the global health architecture.

First, our core mandate – science, data, norms and standards. As some say, WHO’s bread and butter.

Prior to 2019, the way WHO developed normative products was fragmented, with limited quality control or overview. 

So, for the first time in the Organization’s history, we established a new Science Division – led by the Chief Scientist as a new executive position – to consolidate and strengthen WHO’s normative and technical work.

By the way, this work is going to help the Organization, because we’re saying – and many of you are saying – that WHO should focus on its core mandate, and this is our core mandate.

We have strengthened our evidence generation processes, and aligned prequalification of medical products with the introduction of living guidelines.

For example, in the past, WHO would prequalify medicines and only then develop guidelines on their use.

The process was disjointed and could take years.

Last year, WHO prequalified the groundbreaking drug lenacapavir for HIV prevention, at the same time as we developed the guidelines, in just eight months.

But we also want to make sure that WHO doesn’t just produce technical products that sit on a shelf, but that are put to use.

So, in 2024 we opened the WHO Academy in Lyon, France, which now offers over 400 courses in 23 languages, reaching over 120,000 learners so far.

We’re also leveraging the network of over 800 WHO Collaborating Centres, as the Federal Councillor said earlier;

We established the World Health Data Hub to consolidate our fragmented data and analytics capacities;

We’re investing in a modern data backbone, including an AI-powered single point of discovery for data, statistics and knowledge products.

We continue to modernize interoperability standards, including ICD-11, which is accessed 4 million times daily in 15 languages;

And to support countries to harness the power of digital technologies and artificial intelligence for health, we established a dedicated department at headquarters, with focal points across all six regions.

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The second major area of change came with the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed many gaps in global health security, and taught us all many lessons.

Based on the gaps we identified – I will focus on six today – we are changing.

First, we saw that the world needed enhanced capabilities to identify and respond to threats faster.

So with support from Germany, we established the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin.

Second, the pandemic exposed deep inequities in access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.

So we established the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, including COVAX, followed by the interim Medical Countermeasures Network.

We also set up the mRNA Technology Transfer Hub in Cape Town, South Africa, which is now sharing technology with research centres in 15 countries;

And the WHO Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative in the Republic of Korea, which is supporting countries to build the workforce they need, with the skills they need, for local manufacturing.

Third, to strengthen national capacity, together with the World Bank we established the Pandemic Fund – which has so far disbursed US$1.4 billion in grants to 128 countries.

We also established the Universal Health and Preparedness Review, a peer review mechanism to build national capacity and enhance accountability.

Fourth, to improve coordinated global sharing of pathogen materials we established the WHO BioHub here in Switzerland, again as the Federal Councillor said, which has now shared 165 samples.

Fifth, to enhance emergency workforce capacity, we established the Global Health Emergency Corps, which recently ran its second simulation exercise, involving 600 health emergency experts and 25 partner organizations from 26 countries and territories.

And sixth, we recognized that we needed to reform the governance of global health security, to bring everything together into a cohesive whole.

At this Assembly two years ago, Member States adopted a set of amendments to the International Health Regulations;

And last year, you adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement, a landmark instrument of international health law.

The final remaining piece of the puzzle is the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system, as was said earlier by previous speakers – the PABS Annex.

Of course, we had all hoped that negotiations would be completed in time for PABS to be adopted at this Assembly.

It hasn’t happened yet, but I am confident it will, and I thank Member States for their commitment to continuing negotiations and seeking consensus – which I have no doubt you will find, and address the last piece of the puzzle.

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The third major area of transformation – and arguably the most significant – is the historic change we are making to the way WHO is financed.

They say, “The economy, stupid.” In terms of independence and preventing shocks, it’s the financing model, stupid.

When WHO was established in 1948, its only source of funding was from assessed contributions – the membership fees that countries pay.

Voluntary contributions were introduced in the 1950s, but initially represented only about 20% of WHO’s base budget.

By 2017, that proportion had flipped: assessed contributions accounted for only 20% of the base budget, and voluntary contributions accounted for 80%.

What’s more, the majority of voluntary contributions were – and remain – tightly earmarked for specific projects and programmes selected by donors, making WHO vulnerable to shifting donor priorities and geopolitical winds.

We recognized this over-reliance on inflexible, voluntary contributions from a handful of donors as a major risk.

It undermined the organization’s independence, impeded its agility, and exposed it to shocks if a major donor were to withdraw or reduce its funding significantly.

So together with Member States, we designed a set of proposals to broaden our donor base – the revenue source – and make our funding more predictable and sustainable.

Several Member States reduced earmarking and committed to higher levels of flexible and voluntary funding – and we thank those countries for their trust and support.

We also established the WHO Foundation, to tap sources of funding that we had not accessed before.

Most significantly, we proposed a plan to increase assessed contributions from 20 percent of the base budget to 50 percent.

In 2022, here at the World Health Assembly, Member States approved it – a plan to increase assessed contributions to 50 percent of the base budget.

Subsequently, they agreed to achieve that target in five instalments.

The first two have already happened, and the remaining three are due in 2027, 2029 and 2031.

We cannot overstate just how transformational this change has been – and will continue to be – for safeguarding WHO’s institutional independence, and for protecting the Organization against shocks, like the shock that happened last year.

If the first two instalments had not happened, the impact of last year’s funding cut would have been much worse, as you can imagine.

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Excellencies, honourable ministers, dear colleagues and friends.

These are the three key areas in which WHO has transformed: science, emergencies and finance, among others.

Now I would like to update you briefly on the comprehensive process of prioritization and realignment that we have undergone in the past 16 months.

Although the first two increases in assessed contributions cushioned the impact of the funding cuts we faced, they could not insulate us fully.

In close consultation with Member States, we reduced our Programme Budget and undertook a rigorous analysis of every office and every programme.

Unfortunately, we were left with no choice but to say goodbye to a large number of dedicated, hardworking colleagues – and I would like to place on record my deep gratitude to all of them for their commitment and service.

We have now completed the restructuring process. We have reached a position of stability and are moving forward, with purpose and confidence.

The crisis actually brought clarity, and confirmed that we have been doing the past nine years is the right road to stability.

We project that for the current biennium, 90 percent of the base budget is funded.

However, we recognize that in the current environment, the remaining 10 percent will not be easy to mobilize.

And because the majority of voluntary contributions remain earmarked, we continue to see pockets of poverty in many areas of our work.

That makes it essential that Member States fulfil their commitment to approving the remaining three increases in assessed contributions, and to fully honouring the commitments you made in the Investment Round.

At the same time, the work of reforming WHO to make it leaner and more effective and efficient, focused on its core mandate, will continue.

There is always room for improvement. There are always lessons to learn. There are always things we can do better, should do better, and will do better.

For us, I would like to assure you that change is a constant, and we will continue to change – not for the sake of change, but for the sake of the countries and people we serve.

In some areas, this will require stepping back from work that others are better placed to perform.

Because after all, WHO is only one part of the global health architecture.

Over time, that architecture has become increasingly crowded, complex and fragmented.

It’s time for a renovation, to build a new global health architecture fit for the future.

At this Assembly, Member States will consider a proposal for a Member State-led, WHO-hosted joint process to reform the global health architecture.

Our purpose is not to launch a new initiative, but to bring together the many existing initiatives that have proposed reforms of the global health architecture, in part or in whole.

That is why we have chosen as the theme for this year’s World Health Assembly, “Reshaping global health: a shared responsibility”.

And this is where the leadership of His Excellency President Mahama has been so decisive, in launching the Accra Reset last year.

In the past year, many countries have experienced severe disruptions due to sudden and steep cuts in development assistance.

Those disruptions, and the damage they caused to the health of individuals, families and communities, were regrettable and avoidable.

But they had an unintended benefit: they prompted many leaders to say now is the moment to leave behind the era of donor dependency, and open a new era of health sovereignty.

That is the message of the Accra Reset, and the echoes of Accra are now resounding in Geneva, and around the world.

Thank you, Your Excellency, for your leadership in this. You were very clear in your message today.

Every country should be able to depend on other countries. For friendship. For solidarity. For support when needed.

But no country wants to be dependent. Every country wants equity. Every country wants sovereignty.

It’s a cliché to say we’re at a turning point – a fork in the road. In this case, it’s true.

This is the moment for change. This is the opportunity to take the road that leads to sovereignty; the road that leads to solidarity; the road that leads to equity.

That is the road down which many countries are now walking – and that is the road that WHO is walking with you, every step of the way.

It’s the road that leads to the destination that our founders set 78 years ago: the highest attainable standard of health, not as a luxury for some, but a right for all.

I visited Malaysia yesterday, and I had a meeting with His Excellency the Prime Minister.

One thing I picked up was, “Malaysia boleh boleh.” It means Malaysia can.

All countries can. That’s what President Mahama showed us.

So boleh boleh. It’s possible, we can.

I thank you.

Related links

79th World Health Assembly

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