Edited News , Press Conferences | WHO
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.
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Edited News | UNDP
As diplomatic efforts continue to end fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN development agency (UNDP) issued an appeal on Friday on behalf of people uprooted by the violence to help them rebuild their lives and livelihoods.
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Press Conferences | ILO , OCHA , UNCTAD , UNODA , OCHA , UNDP , WHO
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59th regular session of the Human Rights Council (16 June to 9 July 2025)
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Press Conferences | ILO , WFP , UNICEF , ITU , UNHCR
Rolando Gómez, Chief of the Press and External Relations Section at the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons and representatives of the World Food Programme, the International Telecommunication Union, the International Labour Organization, Giga Initiative, and the United Nations Refugee Agency.
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Edited News | WFP
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Edited News | UNOG
What can each one of us do to save the planet, asks Yann Arthus-Bertrand on World Environment Day
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Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza, are unconscionable. For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This morning, we have received information that dozens more people were killed and injured,” Jeremy Laurence UN Human Rights spokesperson said at the biweekly press briefing in Geneva.
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Press Conferences | FAO , ILO , OHCHR , UNDP , UNHCR , WHO
Rolando Gómez, for the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by spokespersons and representatives of the International Labour Organization, the UN Refugee Agency, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization.
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Edited News | OCHA
Gaza ‘hungriest place on earth’ with aid stymied – UN humanitarians
Starving Gazans continue to be deprived of aid as international relief efforts are being severely constrained by the Israeli authorities, the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said on Friday.
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Press Conferences | IFRC , OCHA , UNCTAD , WMO
Alessandra Vellucci of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by spokespersons and representatives of the International Federation of the Red Cross, the World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations Trade and Development, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Humanitarian Aid in Gaza
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Press Conferences | WHO , OCHA , UNRWA
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired a hybrid press briefing, which was attended by the spokespersons of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the World Health Organization, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the International Telecommunication Union.
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Edited News | OCHA , UNRWA
As a controversial United States and Israel-backed aid distribution plan gets underway in Gaza, the UN called on Tuesday for an “immediate surge” of its own pre-positioned supplies to help prevent starvation.