10 Years of Leadership on Global Health - Farewell to Margaret Chan

Dr. Chan, dear Margaret,
Dear panellists,
Ladies and gentlemen:

A special thank you to the Global Health Centre for organizing today’s event marking a decade of Dr. Chan’s leadership as Director-General of WHO. As she is preparing to hand over the reins to her successor, it is indeed a fitting moment to reflect on the significant transformations the global health sector has gone through over the past ten years in which Dr. Chan played a key and transformative role.

Since WHO set up its headquarters here in Geneva in 1948, the city has attracted numerous other international agencies, public-private partnerships, non-governmental organizations and outstanding academic institutions with complementary and mutually reinforcing mandates. Together, all these players, with the help of many others, have transformed Geneva into the world’s health capital. Margaret, I think it’s no exaggeration to say that you were and still are the turbo engine behind this development.

People around the world are living longer and healthier. Millions of lives have been saved thanks to the global response to malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. In 2015, the number of child deaths dropped below 6 million for the first time, a 50% decrease in annual deaths since 1990. And we have never been closer to the eradication of polio. WHO has greatly contributed to these achievements under the leadership of Dr. Chan.

Thanks to Dr. Chan’s efforts, antimicrobial resistance, a major global public health concern, is now at the top of the international agenda and gets the attention it deserves. She rallied governments to commit to stronger preventive health policies and control of non-communicable diseases, which are by now deadlier than infectious diseases at the global level.

Dr. Chan has had to handle some of the most serious disease outbreaks and epidemics in recent times. H1N1 in 2009 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome, MERS, in 2012 and the Avian Influenza H7N9 in 2013 proved less virulent than anticipated, while Ebola in 2014 and Zika more recently hit much harder than expected. Important lessons were learnt from these situations. The Health Emergencies Programme established under Dr. Chan’s leadership, for example, will allow the organization to react faster and more effectively to similar challenges in the future.

Dr. Chan will particularly be remembered for focussing the organization on universal health coverage which is enshrined in SDG 3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. SDG 3 goes far beyond the MDG on health and reflects the interconnectedness and universal nature of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This global roadmap for humanity is built around the conviction that progress on health will not be achieved without progress on the other goals and that the other goals will not be realized without the goal on health. International Geneva, as the operational hub of the international system, is already and will continue to be pivotal for the implementation of the SDGs, relying on key partners like the WHO.

Dr. Chan deserves much of the credit for integrating health more closely with the work of the entire UN System. We have seen health issues being taken up by the UN General Assembly. In 2016, the President of the General Assembly convened a high-level meeting at UN Headquarters in New York on “Antimicrobial Resistance“. In 2018 the General Assembly will hold the third UN High-level Meeting on Non-communicable Diseases. In response to the Ebola outbreak, the Secretary-General appointed a High-Level Panel on Global Response to Health Crises in 2015, to make recommendations to prevent and manage future health crises. Last year, he established the Global Health Crises Task Force to support the implementation of the High-level Panel’s recommendations.

While the international health environment facing WHO is constantly changing, a surge in extremist violence and humanitarian disasters have put health systems under strain in new ways. More than 300 care centres were attacked in 2016 alone, creating new challenges for the provision of much-needed help in conflict and disasters.

In an evolving global health environment, Dr. Chan demonstrated that much needed reforms were not only possible in theory, but that they could be implemented in practice to improve the efficiency of the organization. Such reforms make it possible for WHO to better help bolster health systems to address the needs of the population.

Dear Margaret, you created a solid basis for repositioning international health under WHO’s leadership to respond to today’s multifaceted challenges and you brought new partners on board. In today’s turbulent times, leadership is more important than ever and you have proven that great leaders make a huge difference – thank you. You contributed crucially to a holistic health approach, connecting Geneva to other UN organizations and duty stations, such as UNODC in Vienna, UNFCCC in Bonn or OHCHR right here in Geneva, to name just a few. These bonds continuously underscore the interconnectedness of health with other issues, such as climate change, drug policy and human rights. Thank you for your dedicated work over the past ten years. We know that you have invested yourself with all your heart and all your passion. We have appreciated you as a colleague and friend within our Geneva Family. And I can say with certainty that you will always be part of our Geneva Family. And that’s why I don’t say “adieu” but “au-revoir et à bientôt”.

Thank you very much.