Tedros Adhanom

Scaling up community health workers and health system capacity must be a fundamental component of our efforts to achieve universal health coverage, which will be my topmost priority if elected as Director-General.

The importance of Africa's development to the entire world should be self-evident. And yet, despite the high stakes, Europe - and the international community more broadly - have not devoted the attention and resources that the issue merits.

I contracted malaria while working in the field. That was the impetus for me to pursue a doctorate in community health. As a young academic, I investigated the patterns of malaria's spread and the potential measures we could employ to control it.

Depression is a leading cause of ill health and disability, and many do not have access to mental health services and face significant social stigma around their disease.

Soon after joining the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia, I was called upon as part of team to respond to a malaria outbreak. My team was dispatched to a village in southwestern Ethiopia, where I not only observed the malaria epidemic's shocking effects on adults and children but also experienced it first-hand.

The specter of climate change threatens worsening natural disasters, rapid urbanization, forced migration, and economic hardship for the most vulnerable. Despite significant global advances, inability to effectively address epidemics and health emergencies still prevail and continuously threaten global health security and economic development.

Ethiopia has a robust response, designing development policies with a view to mitigating the impact of climate change. I am proud to say that in the fifth edition of the Global Green Economy Index released in September 2016, Ethiopia is ranked 14 globally in terms of climate change performance.

Climate change and variations particularly impact many aspects of life that are inextricably linked to health: food security, economic livelihoods, air safety, and water and sanitation systems. Gender differences in health risks are likely to be worsened by climate change.

Strong health and disease surveillance systems halt epidemics that take lives, disrupt economies, and pose global health security threats.

When we tell girls that we expect them to pursue education and excel in education, we are changing the narrative and are opening the door to the leaders of our future.

I think the world should unite and focus on strong health systems to prepare the whole world to prevent epidemics - or if there is an outbreak, to manage it quickly - because viruses don't respect borders, and they don't need visas.

Effective public-private partnerships will help drive the development of new products to meet the particular health needs of the poor and other vulnerable populations.