Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday called upon the international community to work together to achieve public health goals aiming to improve the ability of countries with fewer resources to handle health risks.
"Now, it is the time to work together globally to achieve the public health goals outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 3 and Goal 17. This involves helping countries with fewer resources to improve their ability to handle health risks," she said.
To this end, she said that it is crucial to have a strong commitment from all countries and focused diplomatic efforts to achieve this.
The premier made the call while addressing the opening ceremony of the two-day international conference on Public Health and Diplomacy in Dhaka's Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh will play a leading role in this effort, considering its past success in protecting public health and dealing with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us that we are all connected, regardless of how isolated we may feel. None of us can be truly safe until we make sure everyone is safe," she added.
For regional cooperation in greater interest, in the presence of ministers and senior officials from WHO SEARO member states, the Bangladesh prime minister made five specific recommendations.
In the first recommendation, she said: "We need to further coordinate our actions to ensure enhanced preparedness for and harmonized response to future health emergencies."
In her second recommendation, she laid emphasis on working together to eliminate preventable communicable diseases and share good practices for addressing the growing non-communicable disease burdens.
"We should give attention to mainstreaming mental health in our national health systems and also collaborate on fatal public health hazards like drowning and accidents," she said in her third recommendation.
Fourthly she said: "We need to mobilize our combined facilities for medical education and research, with a particular focus on tackling tropical diseases further aggravated by climate impacts."
In her final recommendation, she said: "We must consider the health of our mothers, children, and adolescents as the benchmark of our achievements with SDG 3, with the aim of promoting Universal Health Coverage across the region."
The WHO South-East Asia Region has 11 Member States - Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque, Union Minister of Ministry of Health of Myanmar Dr Thetkhaing Win, Bhutanese Health Minister Lyonpo Dasho Dechen Wangmo and others also spoke.
Health Services Division Secretary Dr Md Anwar Hossain Howlader delivered the welcome speech while Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen gave an introductory presentation.