Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good afternoon, it’s an honour to join you.
My sincere thanks to George Vradenburg and the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative for the invitation, and for your leadership in building a global movement for brain health.
Last year I was supposed to be with you, but at the last moment I had to travel to Tanzania for the Marburg outbreak, which they contained quickly.
Just last week I had the honour of being in Paris to speak at the World Brain Forum, to mark the 15th anniversary of the Paris Brain Institute.
So it’s very encouraging to see how brain health is being elevated in the global health agenda.
And rightly so. The brain is the most complex organ in the human body, but the least understood.
It’s the command centre of human life: the source of our thoughts, our memories, our emotions, our creativity, and above all, our relationships.
The brain is the engine behind humanity’s greatest achievements, but also its greatest failures.
It makes us who we are, as individuals, and as a species.
Brain health is increasingly recognised as a foundational pillar of human development, economic growth, and societal well‑being.
And yet, despite its central importance, and despite the huge burden of disease, brain health has been historically overlooked.
Today, neurological conditions affect more than 40% of the world’s population and cause over 11 million deaths each year, with the largest care gaps in low‑ and middle‑income countries. As George said, we have to support the developing world.
In addition, nearly one billion people suffer from mental health conditions, which are often linked to neurological disorders.
Demographic and environmental pressures are intensifying these challenges: ageing populations, hypertension and diabetes, pollution, injuries and climate change are driving a sharp rise in neurological conditions.
Women carry a disproportionate share of this burden. They face higher risks for conditions such as dementia, migraine, and multiple sclerosis.
And they also shoulder the majority of caregiving responsibilities — formal and informal — meaning the impact of neurological conditions is multiplied through gendered economic and social inequities.
The cost of dementia alone illustrates the scale of the issue. Up to half of global dementia costs are attributable to informal care.
That’s why WHO’s Global Dementia Action Plan calls for 75% of countries to provide dedicated training and support programmes for carers.
However, according to the Global Dementia Observatory, only 24% of WHO’s 194 Member States currently offer such services.
Despite the enormous human and economic consequences, many countries still lack national plans, community‑based care services, or sufficient investment in research and innovation.
Global Dementia Action Plan targets remain unmet.
To address these gaps, WHO is strengthening its leadership across the life course.
In 2022, we published a position paper on optimizing brain health, defining a comprehensive approach from maternal health and early childhood to healthy ageing.
The evidence is clear: the foundations of brain health are laid early, and women — especially during pregnancy and early parenthood — play a critical role.
Ensuring supportive environments from the earliest stages is one of the most powerful investments societies can make.
But brain health is not only a health issue; it is a whole‑of‑society issue.
Investments in what we increasingly call “brain capital” – including education, healthy environments, prevention, and accessible care – fuel innovation ecosystems, strengthen economic resilience, and contribute to social cohesion.
Brain health determines our capacity to learn, to adapt, to create, and to connect.
WHO is grateful for the growing number of partners stepping forward to support this agenda.
In particular, our collaboration with the WHO Foundation is enabling new models of partnership, including with the private sector, to help countries expand community‑based services, integrate neurological care into primary health care, and improve access to essential medicines.
I encourage all of you to connect with the WHO Foundation to explore how we can accelerate progress together.
WHO also plays a critical role in shaping research priorities and setting global norms and standards.
This includes the WHO Blueprint for Dementia Research, which highlights significant gaps, including the lack of sex‑disaggregated research and insufficient representation of women in clinical trials.
We have also published Preferred Product Characteristics for blood‑based biomarkers for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease;
We have updated our guidelines for cognitive decline and dementia risk reduction; and more.
But of course, no single institution can meet this challenge alone.
We need stronger partnerships with governments, research institutes, innovators, investors, philanthropies, civil society — and movements like the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative and the Brain House community — to translate commitments into action, and I thank George for his leadership on this.
Our shared goal is simple and profound: to enable every person, in every country, to achieve their full cognitive, emotional, and social potential.
If we succeed, we will not only reduce suffering and disability. We will strengthen societies. We will accelerate innovation. And we will unlock the brain capital that the world urgently needs at this moment of rapid change.
Together — across sectors, disciplines, and geographies — we can transform the future of brain health for all people, everywhere.
Thank you.