Remarks by Dr Hanan Balkhy, Regional Director WHO EASTERN Mediterranean Region. At the WHA79 Side event on Healthy Longevity

19 MAY 2026

Your Excellency, Mansoor bin Ebrahim bin Saad Al Mahmoud, Minister of Public Health of Qatar,

Excellencies, Ministers, distinguished colleagues,

We have made remarkable progress in helping people live longer. The harder challenge and the one that should define this decade is helping people live well.

Globally, people spend nearly ten years in poor health before they die. With 1.2 billion people aged over 60 today, healthy ageing is no longer only a health issue. It is an economic, social and political imperative and ultimately a question of dignity.

Our goal must be to add life to years, not only years to life.

The Eastern Mediterranean Region reflects the full complexity of this challenge spanning some of the world's most advanced health systems alongside countries navigating conflict, fragility and severe resource constraints.

Yet one lesson holds across all contexts: progress is possible when primary health care is strong, communities are engaged, and older people are treated as active participants not passive recipients of care.

Noncommunicable diseases now account for 75% of global deaths, driven largely by the conditions in which people live, work, eat, move and age. Social connection matters. Clean air matters. Prevention matters. And ageism itself matters. A society that marginalizes older people cannot seriously claim to support healthy longevity.

In our Region, we are shifting from disease-centred care to person-centred care across the life course. Eight EMRO countries^[1] are already implementing WHO's Integrated Care for Older People guidelines more than any other WHO region.

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Ageing and Dementia at Hamad Medical Corporation, supported by Qatar's Ministry of Public Health, is driving this forward through regional capacity building and research.

But healthy longevity will not be delivered by health ministries alone. Urban planning, labour policy and social protection all shape whether people age with dignity and independence. This is a whole-of-society agenda requiring governance and financing models that match that ambition.

It is also an economic agenda. The cost of inaction is estimated at US$47 trillion in lost global output over the next two decades in lost productivity, rising care burdens and overwhelmed health systems.

Digital health can help extend care, improve continuity and reach underserved populations including in fragile settings but only if equity remains at the centre of design. Qatar and partner countries are also advancing precision medicine and nutrition developing care algorithms and building the scientific foundations that longevity research will depend on.

But the most important shift we need is this: stop treating healthy ageing as a cost to be managed, and start treating it as an investment to be made.

Healthy longevity should not be a privilege of wealthy societies. It must become a universal expectation.

Finally, it cannot be achieved without peace. Conflict destroys health systems and cuts lives short long before old age. Where there is no peace, there can be no healthy ageing.

^[1] Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.