Colleagues,

Action for Global Health,  CSEM of UHC2030, Global Health Council, RESULTS, and WACI Health recently held a civil society town hall with WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and leaders from the global health community to discuss the role of civil society in the COVID-19 response. Following the recent announcement made by the United States to cut ties with the WHO, this group has come together again to share a statement expressing continued support for the WHO and its important work.

We are accepting both organizational and individual sign on to the statement copied below. Please complete this form by 1400 hrs on Wednesday, June 10th, 2020.

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Statement Concerning the United States Government’s Decision to Terminate relations with the World Health Organization (WHO)

We, the undersigned organizations, note with grave concern the United States Government’s decision to terminate relations with the World Health Organization (WHO) in the midst of a global pandemic.

WHO is the only organization with the global mandate to coordinate the public health response to COVID-19 during this perilous time.

WHO plays a vital role in supporting countries to protect their citizens from public health threats, through coordination, developing vaccines, treatments and tests, training of health workers, and securing critical supplies particularly in humanitarian settings. This is as true for the current COVID-19 pandemic as it is for the many other health issues which continue to affect people throughout the world.

Challenging WHO’s mandate in these difficult times will cost lives. The current pandemic affects every one of us, and does not respect borders. No one is safe until everyone is safe. The only way to end the pandemic is to bring us closer together.

At this critical moment in the global response, we call for collaboration, constructive criticism and redoubling our efforts to fight this disease. We welcome Resolution WHA73.1 from the recent World Health Assembly, and in particular the call for an impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation of WHO’s response to COVID-19. Equally, we encourage all governments to evaluate their national responses to the epidemic.

Amidst the horror that the pandemic brings is a chance, through partnership and multilateralism, to create a world that is better than the one we had before; a world more equitable and able to serve the health needs of all people.

In September 2019, at the UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, world leaders endorsed the most ambitious and comprehensive political declaration on health in history and committed to providing the opportunity for health to every person by 2030.  It is now time that those world leaders back up their words with meaningful action.