MESSAGE FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ENZO BONDIONI

We live in exciting times which, in the context of the World Health Organization (WHO) resolution on oral health and the subsequent global oral health strategy, creates a strong global political momentum for the important work of our organization. FDI and our members have played a leading role in accelerating action for oral health, and I would like to sincerely thank all our members for their involvement and contributions over the past year. You provided critical feedback into surveys we carried out across our projects and Vision 2030, which will help shape the way forward and ensure the outputs we produce are closely matched to the needs identified. You celebrated World Oral Health Day, participated in workshops, shared best practices, and learnt from each other and, in turn, we learnt from you.

Together, we achieved a series of significant advocacy wins in 2022 to advance progress on the prevention and control of oral disease and the promotion of oral health. The newly adopted WHO global oral health strategy incorporates many of the suggestions we made during the key consultation phases, the draft global oral health action plan aligns with FDI’s Vision 2030 roadmap, and the decisions made at this year’s Conference of the Parties, part 2 (COP4.2) to the Minamata Convention on Mercury were very much in-line with FDI’s key messages.

I am also delighted to share that our corporate partnerships are going from strength to strength. Halfway through the year, all our financial needs for 2022 had been secured, and therefore efforts were focused on locking in funding for 2023. Our corporate partners continue to show their confidence in us by supporting our projects.

Unfortunately, once again, the World Dental Congress (WDC) was cancelled but we had a successful week of Parliament meetings in September, in person, in Geneva, Switzerland, and were able to make decisions on key matters at the General Assembly, such as elections of new committee and council members, as well as the adoption of the 2022 Policy Statements. Besides the official meetings, our 392 delegates had some wonderful opportunities to spend more time together during coffee breaks and at lunches sponsored by our members and partners.

While unfortunately WDC 2022 was cancelled, we wanted to nonetheless give our members and wider network an opportunity to learn about current trending topics in dentistry. That’s why we provided a month-long continuing education opportunity through the Digital Learning Days, completely free of charge.

I am thrilled that an in-person Congress will be back in 2023, co-hosted with the Australian Dental Association in Sydney. It is a flagship event for FDI, and an extremely important opportunity to strengthen ties and foster collaboration within the global oral health community.