PHM-Exch> UN launches $40 billion health drive

[Claudio Schuftan]

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



UN launches $40 billion health drive
By Tim Witcher (AFP) – 2 days ago
UNITED NATIONS — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday announced a
40-billion-dollar drive to improve the health of women and children, which
he said would save millions of lives around the world.
Governments, philanthropists and private groups pledged the cash, giving a
spectacular end to the UN summit on eliminating poverty, a campaign that has
been badly battered by the international financial crisis.
"We know what works to save women's and children's lives, and we know that
women and children are critical to all of the Millennium Development Goals,"
Ban said.
"Today we are witnessing the kind of leadership we have long needed," he
declared ahead of the close of the summit when US President Barack Obama
will be the keynote speaker.
Ban estimated that his Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health
could save 16 million lives by 2015.
Of the eight key development targets set a decade ago, cutting deaths of
women during pregnancy and childbirth and those of children younger than
five have seen the least progress.
Countries from Afghanistan to Zambia -- but also including Australia,
Britain, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia and the United States
-- have contributed to the drive.
The foundations of the world's richest men, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim and
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, were among the contributors. They joined
rights groups such as Amnesty International and multinationals such as LG
Electronics and Pfizer.
"Never have so many come together to save the lives of women and children,"
commented Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, whose country is one of
the world's top aid donors.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said investing in women and children's
health was "an issue that deserves to be at the top of our development
agenda."
A UN statement said the deaths of more than 15 million children under five
would be saved between 2011 and 2015 through the initiative.
It added that it would prevent 33 million unwanted pregnancies and 740,000
women from dying from complications relating to pregnancy and childbirth. It
estimated that 120 million children would be protected from pneumonia.
It was unclear how much of the 40 billion dollars announced is a new
spending commitment and reaction to the announcement was mixed from aid
groups.
"We have learned to be skeptical of big announcements at summits, and we
question how much of this money can possibly be new," said Emma Seery, a
spokeswoman for Oxfam.
"What really counts is where the money is coming from, which means leaders
going home and putting that money into national budgets."
Seery said 88 billion dollars was needed up to 2015 to meet child and
maternal health goals.
Several governments in poor nations promised major increases in spending as
part of Ban's initiative. Afghanistan said it would increase per capita
health spending from 11 dollars to at least 15 by 2020.
The UN said that Britain will spend an additional 2.1 billion pounds (3.2
billion dollars) on child and maternal health from 2011 to 2015.
The three-day summit was called to rejuvenate the eight development targets
set at the 2000 Millennium summit, aiming to be reached by 2015.
The goals set target of cutting by two thirds the number of children who die
before they are five, and reducing the number of women who die during
childbirth by three quarters.
>From 1990 to 2008 the number of child deaths fell by 28 percent, but there
are still almost nine million deaths a year.
The Millennium goals also included cutting the number of people who survive
on less than one dollar a day by half, halve the number of people who suffer
from hunger, halt the spread of AIDS and other killer diseases, achieve
universal primary education and empower women.
The United Nations has estimated that at least 120 billion dollars will be
needed over the next five years to meet the MDGs, which most experts predict
will not be met by the 2015 target date.
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