Paris (France), September 28: World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday broke ground for the WHO Academy's campus in the French city of Lyon.
"The COVID-19 pandemic is a powerful demonstration of the value of health workers, and why they need the most up-to-date information, competencies and tools to keep their communities healthy and safe," said Tedros at the ground-breaking ceremony.
He called for "the commitment of all countries" to "ensure the success" of the academy, located in Lyon's bio-medical district, to meet the needs of WHO member states and a growing global health workforce for expanded access to life-long learning, health guidance and competency-building.
"Investing in health systems is the best way to prepare for future pandemics. Success requires unprecedented coordination of all actors. WHO is, of course, a key player and its Academy will be an essential platform for disseminating learning," said Macron.
"What this crisis also teaches us is that we cannot come out of a global pandemic if we do not have a global strategy," he added, also calling for solidarity between rich and poor countries.
From its campus in Lyon, the WHO Academy will offer online learning programs to health workers, managers, public health officials, educators, researchers, policy-makers and people who provide care in their own homes and communities, as well as to WHO's own workforce, said the WHO.
It aims to offer more than 100 major learning programs by 2023, with flagship credentialed programs for COVID-19 Vaccine Equity, Universal Health Coverage, Health Emergencies and Healthier Lives.
When it opens in 2024, the WHO Academy campus in Lyon will also host a world-class health emergencies simulation center that will use high-fidelity technologies to enable health workers to sharpen their competencies amid realistic scenarios including mass casualties and disease outbreaks.
Agnes Buzyn, France's former health minister, was named Executive Director of the Academy.
Source: Xinhua
