Name: WHO chief looks back on a successful yet challenging 2025
Uploaded: 2025-12-25T17:38:58.132Z
Duration: 1 min 54 s
Description: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement stood out as the year’s most significant achievement, calling it “a powerful example of what multilateralism can deliver when countries choose cooperation over division”

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement stood out as the year’s most significant achievement, calling it “a powerful example of what multilateralism can deliver when countries choose cooperation over division”

Geneva

The head of the World Health Organization reflected on 2025 as a year of both significant progress and major challenges for global health. Key achievements included the adoption of the WHO pandemic agreement, validation of 13 countries for disease elimination, and the issuance of guidance on new health innovations such as Lenacapavir for HIV prevention and GLP-1 therapies for obesity.

Despite these successes, the WHO faced serious obstacles, including funding cuts and numerous humanitarian emergencies across 79 countries and territories. The WHO chief warned that aid reductions could threaten decades of progress and potentially lead to a rise in childhood mortality, while emphasizing the need for countries and the organization to become more self-reliant and resilient.

WHO chief looks back on a successful yet challenging 2025

The head of the World Health Organization said 2025 marked major achievements for global health alongside significant challenges including funding cuts and multiple humanitarian emergencies. The most significant achievement was the adoption of the WHO pandemic agreement, a powerful example of what multilateralism can deliver when countries choose cooperation over division. In addition, this year WHO validated 13 countries for the elimination of diseases. We provided guidance on innovations including Lenacapavir for HIV prevention and GLP-1 therapies for obesity. And we responded to 48 emergencies in 79 countries and territories including Gaza, Sudan, and Syria. Tedros said the year also brought serious challenges, noting that aid cuts threatened to reverse decades of progress and that early estimates suggested childhood mortality could rise for the first time this century. In the crisis lies an opportunity, an opportunity for countries to transition away from aid dependency towards self-reliance and the opportunity for WHO to become more independent and future-proof. The world still needs WHO and WHO remains committed to our founding vision, the highest attainable standard of health, not as a privilege for some but a right for all. The WHO validated 13 countries for eliminating diseases and issued guidance on new health innovations including Lenacapavir for HIV prevention.

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