The World Health Organisation (WHO) has disclosed that no country was currently on track to achieve all of the health targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hinted this on Monday, September 27, 2021at the WHO Academy Groundbreaking Ceremony in Lyon, France.
TheFact Nigeria noted that there has been rapid advancement in health science since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic.
President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who headed the ground breaking ceremony said the aim of the Academy was to expand access to critical learning to health workers, managers, public health officials, educators, researchers, policy makers and people who provide care in their own homes and communities, as well as to WHO’s own workforce throughout the world.
According to the WHO Director-General,
the quickening pace of scientific discovery and advancement of technology was making it more difficult for health workers, policy makers and other public health practitioners to keep up with evidence-based health practice and policy.
Hence, as a result, it often took more than a decade to put important life-saving guidelines into practice. This, he hinted was a key reason why no country was currently on track to achieve all of the health targets of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Speaking on the ambitions of the Academy, the WHO Director-General said: “The ambitions of the WHO Academy are not modest: to transform lifelong learning in health globally,
“The COVID-19 pandemic is a powerful demonstration of the value of health workers, and why they need the most up-to-date information, competencies and tools to keep their communities healthy and safe.
“The WHO Academy is an investment in health, education, knowledge and technology, but ultimately it’s an investment in people, and in a healthier, safer, fairer future”, said Dr. Tedros.
The French President in his speech also said: “The quality of the health workforce is the key to resilience during a health crisis.
“Investing in health systems is the best way to prepare for future pandemics. Success requires unprecedented coordination of all actors.
“WHO is, of course, a key player and its Academy will be an essential platform for disseminating learning”, said President Macron.
The vast majority of the Academy’s students will use online means to access the its programmes, which will be made available via desktop and mobile devices and in low-bandwidth settings, thereby ensuring an equitable, global and diverse cohort of learners.
The Academy will, in addition to other functions, offer its learners streamlined access to WHO’s full breadth of hundreds of e-learning programmes currently spread over 20 digital learning platforms as well as access to high quality learning programmes developed by others.
It will also offer more than 100 major learning programmes by 2023, with flagship credentialed programmes for COVID-19 Vaccine Equity, Universal Health Coverage, Health Emergencies and Healthier Lives.
WHO also used the occasion to announce the appointment, which became effective on 16 August 2021, of Dr Agnès Buzyn as the Academy’s Executive Director. She had been serving since January as the WHO Director-General’s Envoy for Multilateral Affairs, during which time she had also supervised the Academy project.
