PHM-Exch> HEAD OF WHO CALLS FOR ‘FAIRNESS’ IN GLOBAL HEALTH POLICIES

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Vern Weitzel <vern.weitzel at gmail.com>
crossposted from: "[health-vn discussion group]" health-vn at anu.edu.au

HEAD OF WHO CALLS FOR ‘FAIRNESS’ IN GLOBAL HEALTH POLICIES
New York, Jun 15 2009  1:00PM
The head of the United Nations public health arm today urged senior
government
officials to place “fairness” at the core of decisions to protect the most
vulnerable against major worldwide crises.

Global warming, hikes in fuel and food prices, the economic meltdown and now
the
A(H1N1) influenza pandemic hit hardest in developing countries, said World
Health Organization (<"http://www.who.int/en/">WHO) Director-General
Margaret Chan.

There is growing recognition that “blind faith in economic growth and gain
as
the be-all, end-all, cure-for-all has been misplaced,” Dr. Chan told senior
government officials and international experts attending the
Secretary-General’s
Forum on Advancing Global Health.

“Fairness, I believe, is at the heart of our ambitions in global health,”
said
Dr. Chan. A failure to put equality at the centre of health-care policy
decisions is “one reason why the world is in such a great big mess.”

She characterized globalization as a rising tide that lifts “the big boats,
but
swamps or sinks many smaller ones,” adding that the financial crisis has
“proved
highly contagious and this contagion showed no mercy and made no exceptions
on
the basis of fair play.”

Even the level of preparedness for and capacity to cope with the A(H1N1)
influenza outbreak in recent months are strongly biased towards wealthy
countries, Dr. Chan told the gathering at UN Headquarters in New York.

“Differences in income, life expectancy, and opportunities are greater now
than
at any time in recent history. These extremes of privilege and misery,” Chan
noted, are often “a precursor for social breakdown.”

After addressing the Forum, she
<"http://www.un.org/apps/sg/offthecuff.asp?nid=1299">told reporters that
“health
investment will bring economic progress and more wealth.”

In his opening <"http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=3918">address to
the
Forum, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that healthy people have improved
life
expectancy, go to school, are more productive, take fewer days off work,
have
lower birth rates and thus invest more in fewer children.

“Health is the tie that binds all the Millennium Development Goals
[<"http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/">MDGs] together,” he said, referring
to
the globally agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.

Eradicating poverty, illiteracy and the other challenges the MDGs seek to
tackle
will not be met without reaching the health targets, said Mr. Ban. “That is
why
global health is a top priority for me.”

Underscoring the need for strengthening efforts to improve maternal health,
with
an estimated global loss of $15 billion in productivity due to maternal and
newborn deaths, Mr. Ban said that there is “no better investment than
safe-guarding the lives of mothers.”

He added that the international community should apply its experience of
fighting AIDS and malaria to saving mothers’ lives. “We know that when
governments, UN entities, businesses and civil society leaders join forces,
we
can have a powerful impact.”
________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news


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