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INTERVENCION DE MARIA HAMLIN  ZUNIGA

TECHNICAL SESSION: WHA 17 MAY 2002

Muy buenas tardes a sus excelencias Dra. Gro Bruntland, Dr. David Navarro, Dr. Manuel Dayrit, Ms. Eva Wallstam, Honorables ministras y ministros de salud y sus delegados:

This year we are celebrating the Centenary of the Pan American Health Organization. Throughout the Americas region, Health Ministries and PAHO are planning diverse activities to commemorate that event. There are planned events with health sector workers, universities, civil society organizations, and other sectors.

We request that health ministers in the Americas work with representatives of civil society, in particular persons involved in the growing People's Health Movement. Together let us organise events where we can present the People's Charter for Health and discuss our specific suggestions for the promotion of equity and health for all in our countries.

The concept of primary health care and Health for All grew out of many grassroots experiences in community based integral health programs around the world, as Dr. Halfdan Mahler has often reminded us. In Latin America there are excellent examples of these health programs that began in the mid 60s and continue to be relevant, especially today. The community based health programs and the health promoters associated with them have been particularly important in terms of health of the many and varied indigenous communities of the Americas.

We want to celebrate the involvement of community health workers and grassroots movements in the advancement of health. For example, the campaigns for the eradication of smallpox, polio, and measles would not have been successful without the active involvement and collaboration of these groups.

However, with the structural adjustment programs and the heavy debt payments, health care systems have been severely affected. The gap between the rich and the poor is all too evident in the growing lack of access to care. The People's Health Movement states that this situation must change. The health components of the national poverty reduction strategies must respond to the needs of the people.

We believe that the Centenary of the Pan American Health Organization and the Twenty fifth anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration provides us with an opportunity. Together we must revisit the holistic concept of comprehensive primary health care and role it must play in the dramatic situations we are facing in the region and throughout the world. In line with the Alma Ata Declaration and the People's Health Charter we can work together toward a renewed commitment to truly sustainable healthy human development. 

The People's Health Movement is already planning a significant event next year to commemorate the 25 years of the Alma Ata Declaration.

Therefore, we urgently request that you health ministers take the lead in providing those encounters with the People's Health Movement and other Civil Society organizations that will permit an open and critical dialogue about the future of health in our regions. 

Thank you.

Maria Hamlin Zuniga

International People's Health Council - IPHC

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