Video address by President Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of the World Health Day

On April 6, a video address by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was presented at the headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, on the initiative of the Director General of the organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The video address by the heads of state and government of 4 countries was broadcast at the event.

Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said:

- Now I give the floor to His Excellency, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to talk about his experience of the pandemic and what measures should be taken to end the acute phase of the pandemic as soon as possible.

Video address by President Ilham Aliyev

Every year, since 1950, we celebrate a World Health Day on April 7. But 2021 is the year when the importance of health became even more significant. Having a modern, sustainable, high quality healthcare system is a priority for every country.

Healthcare in Azerbaijan is currently going through a significant change. With implementation of mandatory health insurance, Azerbaijan is strengthening the primary health care, renovating the emergency medical care services, facilitating the digitalization by starting e-health platform and national health accounts within the country.

In the meantime the second year of COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to put enormous pressure on healthcare systems around the world.

Azerbaijan was among the first countries to mobilize global efforts against COVID-19 pandemic.

We initiated the Summit of the Turkic Council in April 2020, the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in May 2020 and the Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the level of the heads of state and government in December 2020.

Honoring its international responsibility, Azerbaijan has made voluntary contributions to the World Health Organization in the amount of 10 million US dollars. We have also provided direct humanitarian and financial assistance to more than 30 countries in their fight with the coronavirus.

This year’s World Health Day is dedicated to “building a fairer and healthier world” and the question of equal and fair distribution of vaccines is of paramount importance for this cause.

Yet we all are deeply concerned by the unequal and unfair distribution of vaccines among developing and developed countries. Some countries hoard several times more vaccines compared to their actual needs. It’s clear that in such circumstances, other countries will face vaccine shortages.

Supporting fairness in vaccine distribution Azerbaijan put forward a draft resolution - “Ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access for all countries to vaccines in response to the coronavirus disease pandemic” - at the UN Human Rights Council. The resolution was adopted by consensus on March 23 this year.

Azerbaijan was also among the first countries to join and support COVAX initiative. We and the whole international community expect this initiative to become a model of cooperation and solidarity in response to pandemic.

Only together we will overcome the pandemic and return to normal life.

Happy World Health Day!

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus:

Thank you, President Aliyev. I welcome your leadership at the UN Human Rights Council on ensuring equitable, affordable, timely and universal access to vaccines, and I agree with your opinion that we should do more in order to ensure fair distribution of vaccines.