WHA78, Geneva, 19-27 May 2025
Agenda item: 17.1
Document: A78/13
Chair, Your Excellencies, Director-General,
The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region shoulders one-third of the world’s humanitarian burden, and 15 per cent of our population requires humanitarian assistance.
The unfolding crises in Gaza and Sudan—alongside protracted emergencies in Yemen, Somalia, and Afghanistan—are compounded by ongoing disease outbreaks, revealing the depth and complexity of our challenges.
With governments and partners, we have ensured trauma care, maintained essential services, sustained the supply of medicines, controlled disease outbreaks, and coordinated the health-sector response.
With the right resources and access—we can deliver health and hope. The polio vaccination campaigns in Gaza this past year, a case in point.
As part of WHO’s global emergency response, the Dubai logistics hub has delivered over US$245 million worth of health supplies to 145 countries since 2020.
We are committed to working with Member States to strengthen core capacities: to prevent, prepare for, detect, respond to, and recover from emergencies.
The historic Pandemic Accord, adopted by this World Health Assembly, stands as a global commitment to ensure that everyone, everywhere―regardless of where they live―has an equal right to survive in the face of a pandemic.
I remain hopeful that the coming year will bring progress towards peace, reconciliation, and recovery.
