Malaysia’s Participation in the 77th World Health Assembly
YB Minister of Health, Datuk Seri Dr. Haji Dzulkefly Ahmad led the Malaysian delegation to the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) held in Geneva from 27 May to 1 June 2024.
The WHA is the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO) that convenes annually to set the policies of the WHO. The theme of this year’s WHA is “All for Health, Health for All.”
Prior to the opening of the 77th WHA, YB Minister attended the Walk the Talk Challenge, a 3km walk to promote healthy lifestyles and partnership for health.
At the High-level Welcome, YAB Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim was given a great honour to address the Assembly through a video statement. In his statement, YAB Prime Minister reiterated Malaysia’s commitment to ensure that every individual, regardless of their background or socio-economic standing, has access to essential and quality healthcare services throughout their lifetime.
Meanwhile, at the plenary session, YB Minister delivered Malaysia’s national statement, highlighting that WHA’s theme this year is truly a moral and social imperative that resonates deeply with Malaysia’s ongoing transformation on healthcare financing and service delivery. Malaysia’s vision is centered around a seamless integrated person centric care with a strong emphasis on prevention and primary health care.
In between the packed schedule of the Assembly, YB Minister held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Indonesia, Maldives, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and Oman to discuss health cooperation particularly postgraduate medical education, joint workshops and health tourism.
YB Minister also participated as a speaker in the Inter-Ministerial Dialogue: “Harm reduction” organised by the Global Commission on Drug Policy and WHO and the Ministerial Side Meeting to Accelerate Action to Fight Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in the Asia-Pacific. YB Minister also met the President of the Canton of Basel-Stadt government to discuss clinical research cooperation between Swiss pharmaceutical companies and Clinical Research Malaysia.
The 77th WHA was also a historic milestone as 194 Member States adopted a package of amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) following negotiations since 2022. The package of amendments to the IHR will strengthen global preparedness and responses to public health emergencies, including pandemics. Member States also made concrete commitments to completing negotiations on a global pandemic agreement within a year, at the latest, and possibly in 2024.
