WHO Regional Director’s statement at the media briefing, 4 October 2023
4 October 2023 – This briefing bridges two crucial events at which decision-makers converge. The first is the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which I attended last month and where world leaders renewed their commitment, action, and solidarity to fight pandemic threats and to advance universal health coverage.
The second is the annual meeting of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean, which will take place next week. Members of the Regional Committee will convene to review progress on our collective commitments to health across the Region and to agree on priorities for the coming months and years.
The Eastern Mediterranean Region faces an unprecedented number of health emergencies. These are driven by state fragility and conflict, climate change-related extreme weather events, other natural and technological disasters, mass displacement and economic disparities.
By mid-2023, over 363 million people globally and 140 million in our Region alone required humanitarian aid, including for health. Recent emergencies, including Libya’s catastrophic floods and the ongoing armed conflict in Sudan will certainly increase this number.
Protracted armed conflicts have ravaged nine of the Region’s 22 countries and territories, resulting in increased trauma, displacement, and attacks on health care. Compounding this, our Region is the epicentre of 55% of the world’s refugees, putting even further strain in already weakened health systems.
The impact