In her final opening address to the World Health Assembly as Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan offered some advice to delegates "as you continue to shape the future of this Organization". She called on the Health Assembly to make “reducing inequalities” a guiding ethical principle. "WHO stands for fairness," she said. Countries should also work to improve collection of health data and make health strategies more accountable. Protecting scientific evidence should form "the bedrock of policy", said Dr Chan, citing vaccine refusal as one of the reasons that the "tremendous potential of vaccines is not yet fully realized". She stressed the importance of continued innovation, citing the research partnership between WHO and others to produce an effective and highly affordable meningitis A vaccine that has transformed the lives of millions of people in Africa. “Meeting the ambitious targets in the Sustainable Development Goals depends on innovation,” she said.

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