WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the welcome reception of the Global Forum of WHO Collaborating Centres – 7 April 2026

Honourable Minister Stéphanie Rist,

Distinguished guests, dear colleagues and friends,

Bonsoir à toutes et à tous !

Good evening, thank you for joining us and welcome to Lyon.

I would like to thank especially His Excellency President Macron, Minister Rist and the Government of France for their hospitality and support, and for enabling us to host this event here in Lyon.

As you all know, today is World Health Day - the anniversary of the date on which the Constitution of the World Health Organization entered into force, on the 7^th of April 1948.

This year, we have chosen as the theme for World Health Day, "Together for Health. Stand with science."

WHO is sometimes accused of taking sides with one country or another.

I always say that we do take sides - but not with any particular country. We take sides with science.

Science is at the heart of everything we do.

And as WHO Collaborating Centres, science is at the heart of everything you do, too.

You collect data, you conduct research, you teach, you train, you provide laboratory services, and much, much more.

WHO Collaborating Centres are currently implementing over 4000 activities in support of WHO's programmes.

Part of the reason for this forum is just to say thank you. But it's also to say we need you, now more than ever.

In a world of overlapping challenges and shrinking resources, the in-kind support that you give WHO and our Member States is frankly invaluable.

This evening is a moment of celebration, as we celebrate WHO's 78^th birthday.

But there also are other anniversaries to celebrate.

In particular, I would like to congratulate the WHO collaborating centre for public mental health and innovation in mental health services in Lille, France, which this year celebrates 50 uninterrupted as a WHO collaborating centre.

We have many other veteran WHO collaborating centres here this evening with us - too many to name.

But I would like to make special mention of the most senior of them all: the Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections Reference Unit of the UK Health Security Agency, which has been a WHO Collaborating Centre since 1962.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Ivana Bozicevic, who is here with us this evening.

Dr Bozicevic is the head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV Strategic Information in Zagreb, Croatia.

Last year she led the open letter in The Lancet in support of WHO that was signed by hundreds of you here tonight.

It's a nice coincidence that the institution Dr Bozicevic works for is the Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, named after one of the authors of the WHO Constitution and the President of the First World Health Assembly in 1948.

In his speech at that Assembly, Dr Štampar said that "every individual has a fundamental right to health".

That is the vision for which my colleagues and I continue to work every day;

And that is the vision that you as collaborating centres are helping to realise.

So on that note, I propose a toast: to WHO collaborating centres.

Thank you and enjoy the evening!