WHO Director General's remarks at the high level event – Building pandemic resilience: the time is now – 25 September 2024

Honourable Minister Sabin Nsanzimana, co-chair of the Pandemic Fund Board,

Axel, Priya, Eric,

Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,

Thank you all for joining us today.

Winston Churchill said, "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

The COVID-19 pandemic was a crisis unlike anything we have experienced in our lives before.

It taught us many painful but valuable lessons, which have led to many initiatives to strengthen the global health security architecture.

The Pandemic Fund is one of the most significant.

COVID-19, like the current outbreaks of mpox in Africa, revealed the major gaps many countries have in their ability to respond to health emergencies.

Closing these gaps requires predictable, sustainable and scalable financing, particularly for lower-income countries.

That's why WHO, the World Bank and our partners came together to create The Pandemic Fund: to provide dedicated, long-term financing to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response capacities.

Already, through the first call for proposals, 19 projects across 37 countries are benefiting from 338 million US dollars in grants.

These funds are being put to work to strengthen laboratory systems, surveillance, health workforce capabilities, and much more.

The second round will be able to draw on almost 550 million US dollars, with almost 130 million dollars already allocated to combat mpox in 10 countries.

As with the first round, the scale of requests from countries is far greater than the resources we have to meet them.

So far, the Pandemic Fund has received second-round requests totalling 2.7 billion US dollars.

The Pandemic Fund cannot meet all the needs of countries, nor is it designed to.

It's designed to be catalytic in nature, complementing national efforts while encouraging additional co-financing from countries, partners, and donors.

As the technical lead of the Pandemic Fund and chair of the Technical Advisory Panel, WHO is supporting the implementation of 15 of the 19 projects in the first call for proposals, and we expect to be the implementing entity for many of the proposals in the second round.

The Pandemic Fund is an important part of WHO's work with the World Bank and many other partners to strengthen the global and national health security architecture.

This includes our collaboration with the World Bank on the G20 Joint Finance Health Task Force.

The major remaining piece of the health security puzzle that is not yet in place is the Pandemic Agreement.

Member States have made progress, but some of the most crucial issues remain unresolved.

I remain confident that they will reach consensus, and I remain of the view that it's possible to do by the end of this year, if there is sufficient will on all sides.

Thank you all once again for your support for the Pandemic Fund.

We look forward to our continued partnership as we work together for a healthier, safer, fairer world.

I thank you.

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