Distinguished guests,
Researchers, teachers, students, and alumni
Partners and colleagues
Just two weeks ago, the world marked World Health Day under the theme ‘Together for Health. Stand with Science.’
Today, standing in this room, I see exactly what that call looks like in practice.
Twenty years of rigorous science. Twenty years of dedicated institution-building. Twenty years of PHFI.
On behalf of the World Health Organization, I extend warm congratulations to PHFI, its founders—including founding President Prof Srinath Reddy, and everyone in this room.
It is my pleasure and privilege to join this celebration.
In the early 2000s, India faced a shortage of trained public health leaders capable of bridging science and policy.
The establishment of PHFI was a bold decision in response, a declaration of conviction that investing in public health education and research is the surest path to better health outcomes.
Today, as I look around this room with admiration, we can all see that bet has paid off handsomely.
Over the past two decades, PHFI and its five Indian Institutes of Public Health have built an extraordinary legacy.
To date, you have trained thousands of public health students through on-campus diplomas, Masters, and PhD programmes.
Thousands more through distance education.
And many more thousands of professionals through short-term training.
Together, they are now serving government ministries, international agencies, civil society organizations, and academic institutions around the world.
Their contributions go beyond India. And this generation of leaders you have produced will train the next.
The research record is equally impressive.
According to the SCIMAGO Institutional Ranking, PHFI stands first in the overall research category and second in the health sector research category among all institutions in India.
Studies on heart disease, diabetes, tobacco, mental health, and maternal and child health have directly shaped national health programmes.
And I was pleased to note that PHFI was ranked second in the world by the Public Health Academic Ranking, ahead of Harvard's T H Chan School of Public Health, the Swiss School of Public Health, and the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins.
WHO has partnered with PHFI across many technical areas over the years — and we are proud of that relationship.
You have been designated as a Global Nodal Centre of our WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research.
We consider you not just a partner, but a peer institution in advancing public health science in this region.
Even as we celebrate the past today, so too must we take an honest look at the future.
The challenges before us in public health, in India, and across our South-East Asia Region, are urgent and in some respects growing.
Our region carries one quarter of the world's disease burden.
It is home to rapidly ageing populations, and the rising tide of non-communicable diseases.
We face persistent threats from infectious diseases, deepening health inequities, and the impacts of climate change.
The need for rigorous, locally generated evidence has never been greater.
And yet the capacity to produce and use that evidence remains deeply uneven.
And like so many other parts of the world, we too face the growing threat of misinformation and disinformation—undermining trust in public health systems and the science on which we stand.
And so, what should our focus be in the years ahead?
First, building institutions that last.
The WHO Global Strategy on Research for Health calls for sustained investment in national research institutions in low- and middle-income countries.
PHFI's model of building indigenous capacity, training local talent, and conducting locally relevant research is precisely the model other countries in our region need to replicate and scale.
We need more PHFIs across South-East Asia.
Second, we must close the gap between science and policy.
We produce more health research today than ever before. And yet much of it never reaches the people who need it most — those making decisions about health budgets, programmes, and laws.
In this context, WHO’s call to stand with science is particularly important.
It is a call for governments, institutions, and those of us in this room to invest in science, trust evidence, and to ensure that evidence-driven decisions reach every community that needs them.
We must promote evidence-informed decision-making as a core governance function.
We need institutions like PHFI to deepen their investment and engagement in policy translation, in health technology assessment, rapid evidence synthesis, and science communication.
We call on them to deepen direct engagement with Ministries of Health at the national and sub-national level, Ministries of finance and indeed with all of government.
My third and final point is about adapting academic training to a changing world.
The public health needs and opportunities of the next twenty years — pandemic preparedness, climate-sensitive diseases, antimicrobial resistance, the mental health crisis, digital health transformation — these all require professionals trained very differently from the generation before them.
We need flexible and adaptable leaders-
who can work across disciplines;
who understand data science as well as community health;
who can engage with policymakers and communities simultaneously; and
who well understand the opportunities and threats posed by AI in healthcare.
Our universities and training institutions must adapt. Curricula must change. Teaching methods must evolve with evidence as the guiding light.
WHO is committed to this agenda.
We are committed to helping Member States build stronger institutions, stronger research, stronger connections between science and policy, and future-ready leaders.
And we want to deepen our partnership with PHFI in the years ahead.
As PHFI enters its third decade, it has the opportunity to go beyond generating knowledge, to ensuring that knowledge translates into healthier populations.
This will happen through stronger systems, empowered communities, and trusted public health institutions, and this is where PHFI and WHO can make the greatest difference together.
I would like to close me with a message for the students and young researchers in this room.
You are the generation that will determine whether the evidence we generate actually reaches the communities who need it.
The next twenty years of public health progress will be shaped by the rigour of your inquiry, the ambition of your training, and the courage of your partnerships.
Congratulations again to PHFI.
Thank you to everyone here for coming together for health, standing with science and serving the cause of public health.