Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
Dear Participants,
It is a profound honour to address the opening of the 58th session of the Commission on Population and Development.
This year¡¯s theme ¡ª ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages ¡ª is particularly relevant and important today.
A healthy population is fundamental to building the equitable, sustainable, and peaceful world that we have committed to achieve.
In recent decades, significant strides have been made in improving people¡¯s health and well-being, including reductions in child mortality and maternal mortality.
However, many health-related targets of the Sustainable Development Goals are off-track for 2030.
Childhood immunization campaigns, for example, have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and other recent crises.
A significant portion of the global population lacks access to vital health services, while high out-of-pocket healthcare spending continues to push millions of families into poverty.
Health spending remains highly unequal across countries, with average levels in many low- and lower-middle-income countries well below the minimum threshold required to achieve SDG 3.
Low levels of health spending per person are often associated with poor health outcomes, with negative impacts on educational attainment, worker productivity, and economic growth.
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
In wealthy countries, most health spending comes from domestic public sources.
By contrast, in poorer countries, a majority of current health expenditures are paid out-of-pocket or through external aid.
However, severe cuts in humanitarian and development assistance threaten devastating consequences for vulnerable populations worldwide, as Secretary-General Ant¨®nio Guterres has noted.
To mitigate this negative impact, we must identify new sources of external aid to achieve health-related targets.
It is also important to alleviate the debt burden, in particular for low-income countries, and dramatically scale up affordable, long-term financing for countries in need.
Innovative financial instruments offer potential avenues for funding. One example is the ¡°debt for health swaps¡±, where creditor countries could waive debt if the debtor country utilizes those funds to invest in domestic health programmes.
The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development to be held in Spain this summer, is expected to advance such solutions and provide immediate relief for debt-distressed countries.
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates,
The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health is one of the cornerstones of the Programme of Action adopted by Governments at the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo in 1994.
Let us leverage this current session of the Commission on Population and Development to generate momentum for the commitments made in Cairo, focusing on improvements in population health as a vital step towards a more equitable, sustainable, and peaceful world.
Let us work together to put the health-related targets of the SDGs back on track.
I wish you a productive and successful deliberation this week.
Thank you.