PHA-Exchange> UN FORUM HEARS CALLS FOR HEALTH INVESTMENTS IN ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

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 from Vern Weitzel <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au> -----

UN FORUM HEARS CALLS FOR HEALTH INVESTMENTS IN ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
New York, May 22 2007  8:00AM
Ministers from across the Asia-Pacific region -- where relative wealth has not 
translated into health investments -- today heard calls at a United Nations 
meeting in Kazakhstan for more government spending on medical care in order to 
combat poverty.

Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for 
Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), told delegates that putting both government 
and 
private expenditure together, South Asia spends only 4.4 per cent of its gross 
domestic product (GDP) on health, while East Asia and the Pacific is only 
slightly better at 5 per cent. In contrast, 6.1 per cent is spent by Sub-
Sahara 
Africa and 6.8 per cent by Latin America and the Caribbean.

Government spending on health was also lowest in the region, Mr. Kim told 
ESCAP's annual session in Almaty.  South Asia governments spend only 1.1 per 
cent of GDP on health, and East Asia and the Pacific 1.9 per cent. The figures 
for Sub-Sahara African, and for Latin America and the Caribbean, are 2.4 per 
cent and 3.3 per cent respectively.

"The high level of out-of-pocket expenditure by patients themselves had driven 
many people into poverty," Mr. Kim observed.

In addition to more investment, governments must ensure that health systems 
are 
equitable and more accessible to the poor and the vulnerable, Mr. Kim said. 
"Countries that have come far towards achieving the health-related Millennium 
Development Goals (MDGs) are those which have ensured that all sections of the 
population have access to a minimum level of health care at an affordable 
cost," 
said Mr. Kim, referring to global antipoverty targets.

For around 20 developing countries which spend less than $20 per person per 
year 
in health, an extra $25 billion a year is needed to enable them to meet the 
minimum requirement for basic health services, Mr Kim said.

"Political commitment is essential," he stressed.




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