• President Macron
• Dr Tedros
• Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

I congratulate the World Health Organization, and my brother Dr Tedros, for inaugurating the WHO Academy.

Thank you for the invitation and I had hoped to be with you in person.

To President Macron and France, I thank you for championing this very important initiative.

Rwanda fully supports this centre of excellence.

The Covid pandemic showed us the importance of training Africa’s health workforce. New health challenges have continued to arise, since then.

We need to lean into advancements in science and technology, and provide better learning opportunities for health professionals.

In Rwanda, we aim to quadruple our health workers in the next four years.

The WHO Academy will be instrumental in helping us achieve this objective, and we intend to make full use of it.

We owe it to our people to deliver consistent, affordable, high-quality health care.

And for us, this means creating partnerships, where we can benefit from knowledge transfer, in essential fields like biotechnology.

There is a lot we can do with friends and partners, to build on what we have already accomplished.

We look forward to witnessing the outcomes of this promising institution, and as always, Rwanda stands to support and do its part.

Once again, congratulations.