Afrigather 
World Well being Day 7 April 2024: Closing of WHO’s 75th Anniversary
Message of WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
On World Well being Day, 7 April 2023, we started a year-long commemoration of WHO’s seventy fifth Anniversary. I thank our Member States, companions, and stakeholders for his or her enthusiasm and help. It has been some season wealthy in festivities and reflections.
We’ve regarded again on public well being successes which have improved the standard of lifetime of populations over the past seven a long time and summoned the power to deal with the well being challenges of the subsequent 75 years.
As we shut the celebrations at the moment, the theme for World Well being Day 2024, “My Well being, My Proper” is suitable to recall how we elevated the rights of our area’s individuals by means of well being.
With our Member States, we have now made vital progress in making certain higher well being outcomes for our individuals over the previous decade. Extra moms and kids are surviving at the moment than earlier than. From 2000 to 2020, the life expectancy of African ladies elevated from 54 to 67 years; the maternal mortality ratio decreased by 33% (from 788 to 531 maternal deaths per 100 000 lives), and the variety of kids dying earlier than the age of 5 was diminished by 50% from 2000 to 2017.
Between 2011 and 2021, the variety of new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths decreased by 44% and 55%, respectively, throughout Africa, and the variety of TB deaths decreased by 26%. As well as, a number of ailments are on the verge of eradication and elimination, together with polio, guinea worm illness, in addition to maternal and neonatal tetanus.
I additionally applaud our Member States’ efforts to speed up progress in direction of Common Well being Protection (UHC). They’re reforming their well being insurance policies and revamping legislative and regulatory frameworks, together with Nationwide Well being Insurance coverage Schemes (NHIS) and Social Well being Insurance coverage (SHI) schemes to scale back catastrophic out-of-pocket well being expenditures.
A number of nations have began operationalizing an built-in Life Levels Method, which prioritizes the well being of people at each stage of their life and the care wanted at any time.
Well being shouldn’t be solely a basic human proper, but in addition central to peace and prosperity. Thus, addressing well being inequities requires intentional efforts.
Issues of weak teams should be assessed. Their wants must be purposively built-in into well being programmes in any respect ranges to speed up progress towards UHC.
We all know that many in our area nonetheless need assistance with entry to high quality important well being companies due largely to unfulfilled rights. That is additional compounded by protracted and ongoing crises akin to conflicts, local weather change, meals insecurity, illness outbreaks, and epidemics.
The variety of individuals aged 15 and over residing with HIV continues to be excessive at an estimated 24.3 million in 2021 (3.4 % of the overall inhabitants) in comparison with 15.6 million in 2005. This displays the continued transmission of HIV regardless of reductions within the incidence of individuals newly contaminated and the advantages of considerably expanded entry to antiretrovirals.
Disparities within the protection of key reproductive, maternal, new child, youngster, and adolescent well being interventions stay vital, with the agricultural dweller, the poor, and people in hard-to-reach areas being essentially the most deprived. Moreover, about 8% of the inhabitants within the African Area continues to be experiencing catastrophic well being expenditures.
I urge our Member States to uphold the progress in direction of fulfilling the best to well being, agreed by all nations of the world in 1948 and enshrined within the WHO Structure.
The correct to well being is a common proper of all human beings, no matter race, colour, intercourse, language, faith, political or different opinion, nationwide or social origin, property, delivery, or one other standing.
Through the Excessive-level assembly on Common Well being Protection through the 78th session of the UN Basic Meeting, our Heads of State and Authorities dedicated to scale-up efforts to construct and strengthen high quality, people-centered, sustainable, and resilient well being methods. I urge all stakeholders to play their half in supporting our leaders in delivering on this dedication.
We’ll proceed to work with you all to strengthen well being governance and fight discrimination and inequalities in well being; we’ll proceed to collaborate throughout sectors on daring options towards the common protection of high-quality well being care for everybody, in all places – as a result of it’s a part of our human rights!
Be taught extra:
World Well being Day 2024: My well being, my proper – https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2024/04/07/default-calendar/world-health-day-2024-my-health-my-right
Framework for sustaining resilient well being methods to realize common well being protection and promote well being safety; the Framework for strengthening neighborhood safety and resilience; the Regional Technique for Neighborhood Engagement within the WHO African Area; and the Regional Multisectoral Technique to Promote Well being and Nicely-being – all protecting the interval 2023-2030
The Programme for Gender Equality, Human Rights & Well being Fairness https://www.who.int/teams/gender-equity-and-human-rights
WHO International Well being Observatory. Protection of important well being companies (SDG 3.8.1). https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/indicators/indicator-details/GHO/uhc-index-of-service-coverage
