Honourable Minister of Health of South Africa Aaron Motsoaledi,
Ambassador Céline Jurgensen,
State Secretary Dr Georg Kippels,
Director-General Dr Yuli Farianti,
Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, and a very warm welcome to Lyon and to the Global Forum of WHO Collaborating Centres.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to His Excellency President Macron and the Government and people of France, and to the municipality and metropole of Lyon, for their hospitality in enabling us to host this event.
And my thanks to all of you for being here, and for your commitment to supporting WHO’s mission.
As many of you know, yesterday was World Health Day, marking the date on which the Constitution of the World Health Organization entered into force, on the 7th of April 1948.
The Constitution outlines 22 core functions of the Organization, one of which is “to promote and conduct research in the field of health”.
The idea of using national institutions for international purposes dates back to the League of Nations, when laboratories were first designated as reference centres for the standardization of biological products.
And the Second World Health Assembly in 1949 established the policy that has prevailed ever since: that WHO should not establish its own research institutions, but utilize the expertise and capacity of institutions all over the world.
Over time, that policy has blossomed into a global network of over 800 collaborating centres in 80 countries, implementing over 4000 activities in support of WHO’s programmes.
This network represents an incredible resource for global health.
Thanks to your institutions, WHO gains access to top universities, hospitals and research institutions worldwide.
Your work covers a vast array of in-kind contributions that benefit most areas of our work – as illustrated by the 240 posters that were submitted in preparation for this forum, many of which you saw on your way in today.
Collaborating centres provide reference samples for influenza, measles, TB and viral hemorrhagic fevers;
They collect key epidemiological data on AMR;
They do groundwork on classification of diseases;
They develop technologies for various diseases including neglected tropical diseases;
And so much more.
The booklet that you have received profiles the incredible work of some collaborating centres:
A collaborating centre in Madagascar working on plague; I had a chance to visit by the way when I visited Madagascar some years ago.
Two collaborating centres in Australia and Japan leading work on AMR;
A collaborating centre in Saudi Arabia strengthening WHO’s capacity on disaster and emergency management;
And so many more.
Without you, WHO would simply not be able to do the work we do.
That’s especially true now, in the context of sudden and severe cuts to aid that are having a huge impact on health and humanitarian work around the world.
Of course, WHO is affected and we are working to mitigate the impact.
But the impact on the countries we support is even greater.
This makes your contributions all the more important. It is only with your strengthened support that WHO can continue to serve our Member States and the people of the world.
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For World Health Day this year we chose the theme “Together for Health. Stand with science.”
Science has always been the driving force behind improvements in health.
And of course, science is at the heart of everything you do as collaborating centres.
One of the challenges we face is translating science into policy, and policy into implementation.
That’s one of the reasons we established the WHO Academy here in Lyon, as the Ambassador had indicated earlier, which I had the honour of opening with President Macron in 2024.
The WHO Academy is supporting countries to develop, equip and sustain a competent, motivated health and care workforce.
It brings together WHO’s work to advance health workforce policies, data and guidance for countries, alongside our support for lifelong learning.
In its first full year of operation, the Academy reached 80 000 learners in 196 countries and areas and now offers over 400 WHO courses in 23 languages.
But to reach even more health and care workers around the world, we need to think and work differently, including through stronger partnerships with all collaborating centres.
Nearly 500 collaborating centres have “training and education” listed as a key activity as part of their work with WHO.
It’s more important than ever that we mobilize your expertise, experience and resources.
I ask all of you to consider working with the WHO Academy to help widen our shared reach and impact.
By the way, the reason we chose Lyon to have this first ever meeting of Global Collaborating Centres is to introduce you to the Academy so you can partner with the Academy.
Over the next two days, I encourage all of you to use this forum to exchange your perspectives on the future role of collaborating centres and the future of science and research to address new global health challenges;
I encourage you to identify concrete opportunities to deepen collaboration across institutions and regions,
And I encourage you to explore how we can collectively enhance the future contribution of your institutions to WHO’s work and to global health more broadly.
I think addressing these issues will help us in the work we do, in making WHO leaner but more effective and efficient, focused on its core mandate.
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
There’s no question that global health is passing through a significant crisis.
But we are passing through it, and we will come out the other side. There is always another side.
Indeed, health is one area in which countries can work together across ideological and geopolitical divides to achieve common goals.
The challenges facing global health are significant, but so are the opportunities. Actually, the crisis is bringing clarity to the things we do.
WHO is a unique organization, with a unique constitutional mandate, a unique global footprint, unique global expertise, and unique global legitimacy.
WHO’s superpower is its convening power – the ability to bring together governments, experts, institutions, partners, civil society and the private sector under one umbrella.
Our success – and yours – lies in harnessing that power, a powerful resource for strengthening our normative work and ensuring that evidence drives policy.
We count on you to strengthen your support to WHO, as we work together to realise the vision that WHO’s founders expressed in our Constitution 78 years ago: the highest attainable standard of health, as a fundamental right, not as a luxury for some, but a right for all.
Thank you all once again for your support and partnership in realising that vision.
As I announced yesterday, we have decided to have the global meeting of collaborating centres every two years, but there was one thing I missed in between: the first two years will be every year, meaning the next one will be next year on April 7 in Geneva. So see you in Geneva next year.
Merci beaucoup.