The joint statement of the United States of America and the World Health Organization on the US-WHO strategic dialogue

US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and WHO Director-General Dr. Theodore Adhanom Ghebreyesus held the first US-WHO Strategic Dialogue. The US-WHO Strategic Dialogue, convened by the Biden-Harris administration, will provide a platform to enhance the long-term partnership between the US government and WHO and to protect and promote the health of all people around the world, including the American people.

Representatives from across the United States government and WHO leaders discussed various global health issues and areas of collaboration and cooperation. The US and WHO welcomed the creation of the historic new Financial Intermediary Fund to help prevent, prepare for and respond to the pandemic, and called on countries to help ensure it is funded and sustained.

As the world appears to be reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s clear that we need to be better prepared in the future, something highlighted by recent outbreaks of simian disease, Ebola and polio. The global health architecture includes important components, policies, and legal instruments that help improve national, regional, and global health. An important aspect of this architecture is the ability to prevent, detect, and respond to outbreaks and other health security threats. Secretary Becerra and Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed that national and global capacity must be strong, efficient, always evolving and always fit for purpose. They discussed efforts to improve the global health architecture, support resilient health systems, and expand health equity.

The discussion also discussed efforts to develop a new pandemic tool, strengthening the International Health Regulations (IHR), making targeted reforms, as well as strengthening the overall health preparedness assessment, joint external assessment and other related tools and updating them. Global, regional and national epidemic and one health surveillance capabilities. It is important to prioritize opportunities to advance health security and primary health care, including the extensive global health information infrastructure supported by several US government programs. By promoting and coordinating rapid and transparent information sharing, strengthened IHRs and a new epidemiologic toolkit could provide WHO member states, including the United States, with valuable tools to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to new outbreaks of epidemic potential and control disease. Control measures. This strengthening of global health security is essential to protect the health of the global and American public.

In addition to strengthening health emergency preparedness and response, the United States and WHO have pledged to strengthen our partnership on key issues to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Accelerated growth requires robust health systems to deal with future health emergencies; Integrated To achieve universal health coverage in primary health care, invest in comprehensive health and care workforce development and community engagement, and promote policies that recognize the link between environment and health to improve quality of life. Accelerating progress towards the SDGs requires leveraging progress in addressing HIV, TB, polio and malaria, promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights, and empowering marginalized and vulnerable communities in global health. In addition, US and WHO leaders discussed budget and management reforms, as well as WHO’s progress in preventing and responding to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment.

Recognizing that more needs to be done to improve and promote global public health, the United States and the World Health Organization have decided to co-operate technical experts by 2023. Common management objectives. Secretary Becerra and Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will lead the next U.S.-WHO Strategic Dialogue in late 2023 through an anticipated update and review of the work of the technical groups.