Date Time
IOAC statement at Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly, 25 May 2021
1. Thank you, Mr Chairman. Honourable ministers, excellencies, heads of delegation, Director-General, and distinguished colleagues. On behalf of the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme – IOAC, I thank you for inviting us to present our report to this 74th session of the World Health Assembly. In presenting the report, we wish to pay tribute to all those working tirelessly across the world to bring the ongoing pandemic under control, and to those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19.
2. Since the inception of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (the “WHE Programme”) in 2016, IOAC has provided oversight and advised the Director-General, under the terms of its mandate. For the purposes of this, its ninth report to the governing bodies, IOAC has aligned its oversight of the Organization’s response to COVID-19, with the terms of resolution WHA73.1. The Committee concentrated its review on WHO’s leadership in the global response to COVID-19, on the Secretariat’s work to support country preparedness and response, and it also examined the WHE Programme’s role and responsibilities as the major component of the Organization’s response to COVID-19.