WHA Side-Event (The Helmsley Charitable Trust, Resolve to Save Lives, World Diabetes Foundation)
Partners and Colleagues
Ladies and Gentlemen
A good evening to all of you.
A hundred and five years after insulin was discovered, we still live in a world where fewer than one in three people with diabetes in South-East Asia receives treatment.
Not because of the science, but because of the systems.
The Global Diabetes Compact exists to fix that.
Five years in, let us be honest about how far we've come, and how far we still have to go.
First, I would like to thank our hosts, the Helmsley Charitable Trust, Resolve to Save Lives, and the World Diabetes Foundation.
Thank you for including the South-East Asia regional voice in this conversation.
South-East Asia carries a disproportionate share of the global burden.
One in five adults has diabetes, roughly one-third of the global total.
The trajectory is sobering: from 254 million today, we are projected to reach 320 million by 2030.
More urgently, only one in three adults with diabetes in our region receives treatment. Fewer than 15% have their blood glucose adequately controlled.
So what has the past five years taught us?
That momentum is possible when political commitment, partner alignment, and country-level action come together around shared goals.
Two regional landmarks reflect this.
First, we launched SEAHEARTS, a regional initiative to integrate cardiovascular and diabetes care into primary health systems at scale.
Through this, our Member States have committed to place, by 2030, 100 million people on protocol-based diabetes management, and achieve good glycaemic control in 50 million people.
As of December 2025, more than 43.5 million people have already been enrolled, across more than 180,000 health-care facilities in the Region.
Second, in 2024, our Member States framed the Colombo Call for Action — a practical, catalytic roadmap to reduce diabetes risk and ensure access to quality treatment and care.
This is fully aligned with the vision of this Compact.
Country experience brings this to life.
Bangladesh has engaged religious leaders to strengthen community awareness and support for people living with diabetes.
Thailand has developed national guidelines on diabetes remission through structured lifestyle modification, backed by a training and certification programme.
And Timor-Leste has shown that revised service delivery models, developed with care providers, can meaningfully close gaps in undetected and untreated diabetes in a short period.
But still, significant gaps remain.
First, access to affordable insulin remains a fundamental barrier.
We have a demand of approximately 170 million vials per year in our Region.
But the costs—ranging from 6 to 20 US Dollars per vial—are prohibitive for millions of the most vulnerable.
Second, access to diagnostics is a critical weakness.
Many primary health-care facilities lack validated tools, and available technologies are often priced beyond reach.
Partners in this room can help, by supporting manufacturers to engage with WHO's Prequalification Programme.
Third, empowering people living with diabetes requires far more attention.
Adherence and safety are undermined by barriers around insulin management, storage, dose adjustment, and structured education.
We need innovative people-centred solutions, and not just clinical protocols.
Fourth, health-care provider capacity remains uneven.
Early detection and quality diabetes management depend on continuous training and mentoring.
That investment cannot be sporadic.
And finally, research and innovation must be better supported.
Several governments have earmarked funding for NCD research, but countries need stronger technical guidance to translate those resources into results.
At a time of constrained resources and competing priorities, collaboration is not optional. It is essential.
The science gave us insulin.
More than a hundred years later, we still owe its promise to the world.
Five years ago, this Compact was our answer to that obligation.
I hope we leave tonight clearer about what each of us will do, so that five years from now, the numbers tell a different story.
Thank you.