On 3 October 2022, EIB Vice-President Thomas Östros gave the opening remarks for Panel 1 (Anatomy of resilience) at the Investing in health for all event.


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>@EIB

Dear guests, distinguished panellists, and colleagues,

I am delighted to open this session, which brings together leading experts and policymakers to reflect on one critical question…

What does it take to build more resilient health systems that are capable of preventing future disease outbreaks and emergencies?

Let me start by outlining the problem;

COVID-19 showed us that in a modern world, no one is safe from a health emergency until everyone is safe. We all need to work together.

And, rather than making us more prepared for the next health emergency, the pandemic has in many ways weakened our healthcare systems. The United Nations reports that the pandemic is threatening decades of progress in global health. It led to disruptions in essential health services, derailed progress against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. Today more children are missing out on essential vaccines than in 2019. This unfortunately clearly shows the weakened capabilities of our health systems.

Alarmingly, long-term investments in health and life sciences may be further put on hold because of the current geopolitical situation, as already tight national budgets are being stretched by food and energy price shocks triggered by the Russian invasion in Ukraine. 

Fiscal pressures are increasing, yet, long-term healthcare challenges remain.

Long-term sustainable investment is essential. To tackle the issues and help those in need, we need to create resilient and equitable healthcare systems – but we also need to make sure they are supported by an effective and adequate workforce.

What is clear is that we must prioritise investment in healthcare before the next crisis strikes.

I am convinced that today’s session will show us what we have learned from these last two and a half years – with our health systems running in “crisis mode”.

From the EIB side, we take our lessons seriously. The Bank  stepped up to face the challenge, when it was needed the most.

The EIB, with the support of the European Commission as Team Europe, worked to enable the WHO, GAVI and CEPI to deliver over 1.2 billion doses of COVID vaccines globally, via COVAX. This unprecedented global response helped to save millions of lives. And demonstrated just how important collaboration is.

Together with the WHO we continue to mobilise investment to build resilient health systems based on a solid foundation of primary healthcare.

Allow me to give you some examples – to show what our global partnership between the EIB and the WHO, in close cooperation with the European Commission – enable us to do:

In both Rwanda and Angola, through our mandates, we give funding for technical assistance to local WHO offices to support the implementation of our EIB financed COVID projects;

And, similarly in Ethiopia, support to such local offices to set up national Primary Health Care Strategies and investment plans.

Cooperation is the way to achieve this…

Let me conclude,

Today, it is hard to overstate how important it is to step up our actions to strengthen our healthcare systems to prepare them for the challenges ahead… we see monkeypox spreading, polio coming back…

That’s why the EIB remains committed to maintain the level of support we mobilised in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, beyond the end of the pandemic. Therefore, we are reinforcing health priorities in our policies.

And to maximise our impact, we look forward to working together to catalyse investment into inspiring developments and drive a better, healthier future for all.

I am now looking forward to a highly fruitful panel discussion.

Thank you.