WHO Press Conference: Launch of the Final Report of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All

EDITED STORY SHOTLIST

Source: UNTV/WHO

Filmed at UNOG Geneva on 23MAY2023

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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.

WHO Press Conference: Launch of the Final Report of the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All

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