The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Edited News , Press Conferences | WHO
WHO Press Conference: Launch of the Final Report of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All
Launch of the Final Report of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All.
Speakers:
· Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
· Mariana Mazzucato, Council Chair
. Jayati Ghosh, Council Member
. Ilona Kickbusch, Council Member
EDITED STORY SHOTLIST
Source: UNTV/WHO
Filmed at UNOG Geneva on 23MAY2023
Shows:
Approximative transcription, please check against delivery
00:00:04:16 - 00:00:27:13
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
I asked the council, chaired by Professor Mariana Mazzucato, to rethink economic policy and practice in a way that serves health rather than the reverse. This reflects a paradigm shift in the world's economic and public health logic.
00:00:29:04 - 00:01:00:20
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
Now the council is finishing its work and publishing its final report. Out of the major 13 recommendations, a few points caught my attention. First, the report implores the world to stop using GDP as the measurement of progress. It doesn't account for the vast resources that go into unpaid work, which is often the backbone of economic and social activity.
00:01:03:19 - 00:01:37:06
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
Second, it calls on countries and funding agencies to stop straitjacketing low and middle income countries via austerity measures which prohibit investment in health. It calls instead on financing for health to be both adequate and sustained over the long term. Third, the council noted that innovation works best when there are vibrant partnerships between the public and private sectors.
00:01:39:19 - 00:01:58:12
Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Chair of the council on the economics of health for all
So are we more prepared now than before? The report says no because we have not treated health for all seriously. We have not designed business models. We have not designed government structures. We have not designed public private partnerships to be outcomes oriented.
00:02:00:10 - 00:02:35:17
Professor Hayati Gosh, Council Member, of the council on the economics of health for all
At the moment, we have a topsy turvy world, right? We have too much money going into ill health and not enough public finance for health. How do we reverse that process? How do we actually ensure that the innovations that occur are oriented towards greater health? How do we prevent the whole gamut of other things that impact on health, the socio economic determinants of health? How do we ensure the adequate finance for that, both public and private? How do we direct them? Mariana has written a lot about market shaping and co-creating the markets, so these are all the ideas that imbued this report.
00:02:37:04 - 00:02:53:24
Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Chair of the council on the economics of health for all
Of course we care about growth, but we need to direct that growth to be inclusive and sustainable, problem oriented, people centered, planet centered. And guess what? Ironically, we actually. I should whisper, grow more, when we do it that way, but grow with a direction.
00:02:57:03 - 00:03:30:23
Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Chair of the council on the economics of health for all
So really going back to issues of how we do capitalism, this is not just about, oh, throw money to the developing world. No, the developing world will benefit if we do capitalism differently, if we do corporate governance differently, if we do public private partnerships differently, if we do finance and the structures of finance differently. So it's really a call to arms and an inspirational one. This isn't about an us versus them. This is we truly are in this together, hopefully a really rethinking a lot of these underlying structures. And again, that's also what makes our report different from previous ones.
00:03:34:05 - 00:04:04:22
Professor Hayati Gosh, Council Member, of the council on the economics of health for all
Preventive means you have to look at nutrition, you have to look at sanitation, you have to look at water. You have to look at pollution. You have to look at housing. You have to look at all of these different things. And so all these ministries have to be involved. But particularly finance is important because we are seeing even today as we speak, we are seeing austerity imposed in various different ways, not necessarily only on the health ministry, but in all kinds of spending that then impacts on health of the people. So in fact, finance has to be critically involved.
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC
Press conference on the latest report of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to the UN Human Rights Council
1
1
1
Press Conferences | OHCHR
Victims Still Waiting: A Global Briefing on Transitional Justice Around the World
2
1
2
Edited News , Press Conferences | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | WMO , OCHA , WHO , UNICEF , UN WOMEN , OHCHR , IOM , UNHCR
Update on Ebola from WHO and OCHA, update on the situation of children with the beginning of school in Ukraine from UNICEF, UN Women on the impact of the settlers and restrictions on women and girls in West Bank, OHCHR on the recovery of extensive human remains in Gaza, IOM and UNHCR on the new wave of displacement in Yemen
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WFP
‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC
Update on the human rights situation in Belarus by the UN Group of Independent Experts on the Human Rights Situation in Belarus
1
1
1
Press Conferences | HRC , OHCHR
Update on the human rights situation in Syria by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | UNOG , IOM , UN WOMEN , UNCTAD , WHO , UNECE
IOM Yemen's Western Coast displacement; UN WOMEN on Gaza; UNCTAD Strait of Hormuz disruptions impacts; WHO Ebola logistics in DRC; WHO smoking and infertility; UNECE Data centres and energy.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk made the following remarks to the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar at the 63rd Human Rights Council.
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today delivered an update on the global human rights situation to the 63rdsession of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.