Welcome Remarks by H.E. Mrs. Zainab Hawa Bangura
Under-Secretary-General and Director-General
of the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON)
Opening Session of the World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2026
Monday, 27 April 2026 | 09:00 a.m.
Your Excellency, Dr. William Samoei Ruto, President of the Republic of Kenya;
Honourable Aden Duale, Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Health, Kenya;
Honourable Reem Alabali Radovan, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany;
Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director-General, Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC);
Professor Mohamed Janabi, Regional Director, WHO Africa Regional Office (AFRO);
Professor Axel R. Pries, President, World Health Summit;
Dr. Sulaiman Shahabuddin, President & Vice Chancellor, Aga Khan University (AKU);
Professor Lukoye Atwoli, Dean, Medical College East Africa Aga Khan University and International President World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2026;
Distinguished Ministers, Excellencies, Honourable Delegates, Partners, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very warm welcome to the United Nations Office at Nairobi.
Good morning and Karibuni Nairobi!
It is my great honour and pleasure to warmly welcome you to the United Nations Office at Nairobi. I am particularly honoured to once again welcome His Excellency President William Ruto to UNON.
NAIROBI AND UNON AS THE RIGHT HOME FOR THIS SUMMIT
It is deeply fitting that the World Health Summit Regional Meeting returns to African soil - and that it does so here, at UNON.
This campus stands as a powerful symbol of multilateralism, global solidarity, and Africa’s central role in shaping solutions to global challenges.
Set within a 140-acre green and biodiverse complex, generously donated by the Government and people of Kenya, UNON is both a place of work and a place of purpose — a space where the United Nations convenes, collaborates, and delivers.
Nairobi is not simply a diplomatic hub. It is the only United Nations headquarters in Africa and in the Global South, hosting both UNON and UN-Habitat. It is a city of ideas, innovation, and ambition - a city where global challenges are not observed from afar but lived and confronted every day.
UNON exists to serve the entire UN system operating in Africa and beyond. We are proud to open our doors to this summit, and we do so with a clear conviction: that the health of this continent is inseparable from the broader agenda of sustainable development, peace, and human dignity - the very principles upon which the United Nations was founded.
THE UN'S COMMITMENT TO HEALTH AS A HUMAN RIGHT AND DEVELOPMENT IMPERATIVE
The United Nations Charter and the Sustainable Development Goals make one thing unambiguous: health is not a privilege. It is a right. And it is a prerequisite for everything else we are trying to build.
We cannot achieve SDG 2 — zero hunger — without healthy communities. We cannot deliver quality education, SDG 4, to children who are sick. We cannot build gender equality, SDG 5, without prioritizing maternal and reproductive health. And we cannot sustain economic growth on a continent where health systems are chronically underfunded and undervalued.
The UN system — through WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, and our partners at Africa CDC — is committed to walking alongside African governments and institutions in building the health systems this continent deserves.
WHY THIS SUMMIT MATTERS — AND WHY NOW
The theme of this summit — Reimagining Africa's Health Systems: Innovation, Integration, and Interdependence — could not be more timely.
We meet at a moment of genuine fragility in global health. Funding for global health institutions is under pressure. Climate change is multiplying disease burdens. And the COVID-19 pandemic exposed, painfully, how interdependent our health fates truly are.
But we also meet at a moment of real possibility. Africa has the world's youngest population, a rapidly growing science and technology sector, and a generation of health leaders who are determined to build systems that serve their communities - not systems designed elsewhere and exported here.
This summit is an opportunity to channel that energy into concrete commitments. UNON stands ready to support those commitments — as a convening space, as a partner to the multilateral system, and as a platform for Africa's voice in global health governance.
CLOSING
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen.
On behalf of the United Nations Office at Nairobi, I welcome each and every one of you -ministers, scientists, innovators, advocates, and partners - to this extraordinary gathering.
The conversations you have over the next three days have the potential to shape Africa's health architecture for a generation. We are honoured to host them.
I wish the World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2026 every success.
Thank you. Asante sana.