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On 18 July 2022, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, was in Paris to meet with high-level French officials and share views on the future directions of the France – WHO collaboration.
In a discussion with President Macron, Dr Tedros stressed France’s central role as a champion for global investment in the health sector. Dr Tedros saluted President Macron for his personal commitment to ACT-A. They recognized what has worked and deliberated on what could be improved from an equity lens, outlining options for the future of the ACT-A mechanism. The partners confirmed the importance of the WHO Academy for training the worldwide workforce, as reinforced French support for the Academy turns it into an essential vector for health action at country level. WHO also thanked the Government of France for its support for the WHO Lyon Office. France plays a leading role in shaping a stronger and more inclusive health emergency preparedness, response, and resilience architecture. France confirmed its support for developing a global accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Dr Braun, Minister of Health and Prevention, appreciated Dr Tedros’ recognition of French leadership on emergency preparedness and response. They also talked about alignment between national and global efforts to reshape health systems centred on primary health care (PHC), with a focus on health promotion and disease prevention. The country and WHO share a vision for strengthening health systems that would have better capacities to prepare for and respond to health emergencies, based on equity, solidarity and effectiveness supported by a consistent One Health approach.
In his conversation with Dr Zacharopoulou, Secretary of State to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, in charge of Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships, Dr Tedros engaged in a lively debate about the way forward for women health and a new strong collaboration on women health and rights. They recognized access and innovation as key drivers for investment in global health, in close collaboration with UNITAID. They exchanged on how France and WHO can to better deliver jointly and with other global health stakeholders at country level with reference to the Global Action Plan for SDG3, and to the One Health approach.
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Over the recent years, France has expanded its already strong support to multilateralism through:
- France contributed US$ 148.7 million in 20-21 including US$ 105.8 million in voluntary contributions (VC) – doubling its support compared with 2018-2019. France increased the flexibility of its allocation with 50% of its VC dedicated to thematic funding for the Strategic Preparedness Response Plan (SPRP) and US$ 7.2 million in core voluntary contributions account (CVCA);
- France’s commitment to the WHO Academy will reach €120 million over five years, enabling the construction of its headquarter, recruitment of team and creation of content;
- A new €50 million in support to Health Systems & Response Connector was announced in February 2022.
