“The health of all people is a fundamental condition for world peace,” declared the French president on the brand new 11,000 m2 campus, financed to the tune of 120 million euros by France.
There will be a shortage of ten million health professionals in the world in 2030, including five million in Africa, according to the WHO. “Recruit them, train them, train them better, make it possible to leverage the most recent discoveries, use new technologies: that’s the whole objective of this Academy,” explained Emmanuel Macron.
“Its mission is simple but ambitious,” added the head of this UN agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: to give these professionals “the knowledge and skills they need to care for people, including in the face of epidemics, pandemics and other emerging risks.
The head of the WHO recalled having submitted the idea of this Academy to Emmanuel Macron in 2018 and having immediately obtained his support. The Covid-19 pandemic then reinforced their conviction that it is essential to have the tools to disseminate vaccines, tests and knowledge to those on the ground in the event of a crisis.
Three million
To do this, the WHO Academy is relying on new technologies. Its Lyon site thus integrates virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
Some 16,000 people will come each year to train in its futuristic building, which has 24 classrooms, a library, a mock emergency response center and above all a huge platform for simulation exercises.
Emmanuel Macron and Dr Tedros witnessed the response, by caregivers in full white suits, to a massive contamination of students by a new virus of animal origin. “As long as this remains an exercise, I will be happy,” commented the French head of state against a backdrop of screaming warning sirens.
A digital platform will make it possible to reach a wider audience and WHO is targeting three million learners by 2028, thanks to online courses in the organization’s six official languages: English, Arabic, French, Chinese, Spanish and Russian.
Accessible on computer but also on telephone, the virtual training courses, which have already started, are aimed primarily at health professionals (doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc.) but also at WHO agents, researchers and decision-makers in the sector.
“Science libre”
Present in Lyon on Tuesday, like several of his counterparts, Chad’s Minister of Health, Dr. Abdelmadjid Abderahim, hoped that the new Academy would help his country “strengthen” its “very fragile” health system.
“Support for the primary health system” must remain the priority of the WHO and public aid, said Emmanuel Macron, while announcing that France would keep its financial commitments to the WHO for the 2025 cycle. -2028, despite political uncertainties in the country.
“We will continue to fight to have an independent World Health Organization, nourished by this free science,” he added. “Today more than yesterday, including in countries where we would least expect it, it is important to defend free science.”
Re-elected to the White House, Donald Trump is hostile to the WHO. During his first term, he began withdrawing the United States from the organization, accusing it of being a puppet of China. And he appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man notoriously skeptical of vaccines, as Minister of Health.
