Address by H.E. Prof. Dr Paulo Ivo GARRIDO
Minister of Health of the Republic of Mozambique and the President of the Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly to the Sixtieth World Health Assembly
The Vice Presidents of the Assembly,
The Director-General of World Health Organization,
Honourable Ministers of Health,
Excellencies,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is indeed a great honour and privilege for me to address the Sixtieth World Health Assembly as the outgoing President.
Let me take this opportunity to once again express my sincere thanks, personally and on behalf of the people and Government of Mozambique, the Southern African Development Community and the African Region, for the honour and privilege you have bestowed by electing me last year as President of the 59th session of the World Health Assembly.
The main credit for the success of the Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly goes to the ministers of health and their teams. Thanks to their active participation and their ability to reach consensus, it became possible to approve major resolutions and decisions in order to move world health forward.
I take this opportunity to warmly thank the Vice Presidents of Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly, the Chairperson of the main Committees and the other members of the General Committee, for the long hours and hard work they have put into this Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly. Their work has greatly facilitated the finalization and submission of important resolutions which were adopted.
The successful completion of our work was also, and in no small measure, the result of the efforts of Dr. Anders Nordström, Acting Director-General, and his team.
Finally the efficiency of the Assembly was dependent on the support of every staff member. I express my appreciation to all members of the World Health Organization Secretariat who have contributed to the smooth running of our work during the Assembly.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me to give you a brief summary of events in the year 2006, starting with the sudden and tragic death of the then World Health Organization Director-General, Dr. Jong-Wook Lee on 22 May, 2006, the day in which the Fifty-ninth World Health Assembly was opened. The sad news of Dr. Lee´s death adversely affected the spirit of the Health Assembly. May his soul rest in peace.
In the same period, the appointment of the Director-General’s successor raised many questions and created uncertainty and some tension. All this led to the convening of an extraordinary Executive Board session, on the 23 May 2006, in which, the necessary steps for the election of the World Health Organization Director-General was recommended.
In this context, the first special session of the World Health Assembly took place on the 9th of November, 2006, with only one item on its agenda, entitled “Director-General”, “Appointment” and “approval of contract”. I had the pleasure and privilege, as President of the Fifth-Ninth World Health Assembly, of announcing the nomination for the position.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The theme of World Health Day “Invest in health, build a safer future” is highly commendable for focusing on controlling the international spread of disease as a good practice for economies, as well as for those whose health is at risk. Important also in relation to this theme is to notice that Public Health is a public good and must secure greater priority and investment from governments. In this view the Abuja Declaration is still leading the commitment of African members in health system financing.
The Director-General’s World Health Report 2007 entitled «international health security» is also highly commendable. There is need to reduce the vulnerability of people around the world, to the acute or rapidly spreading risks to health, particularly those that threaten to cross international borders.
In a globalized world, health issues present new challenges that go far beyond national borders and have an impact on the collective security of people around the world. The experience with SARS and, more recently, with avian influenza made us aware of the need for effective surveillance and strategies such as collaboration among countries, proper infection control measures and coordinated efforts of several actors and networks of relevant scientific institutions to maximize our knowledge and capacity to handle such new diseases.
To handle new and emerging diseases, the most important issues are how to get the relevant information to the most peripheral level of health workers and how to increase access to knowledge regarding the preventive and control measures for populations at large. In this context the strength of multiple stakeholders – governments, international organizations, the corporate sector, civil society- must be leveraged to improve global response capacity.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
In the recent African Union Conference of Ministers of Health, which took place last month in Johannesburg, we Ministers adopted a declaration in which we deeply express our concern on the multitude of public health challenges faced by our continent owing to, among others: weak health systems including inadequate social protection, rising levels of communicable and non-communicable diseases, shortage of human resources for health aggravated by brain-drain, widespread poverty and the impact of armed conflicts and violence. I personally see The African Health Strategy as a comprehensive framework which will help African countries to better coordinate their initiatives for improvement of health status of their populations.
The Health Strategy focuses primarily on strengthening health systems with emphasis on primary health care. Also emphasise that investing in health has an impact in poverty reduction and in total economic development.
The objective of functioning national health systems is to provide the highest level of protection and care possible across the population. I reiterate my statement to the World Health Assembly last year where I pleaded for the progressive integration of vertical programmes in the national health systems which need to be strongly strengthened. Only robust and strengthened national health systems can properly deliver comprehensive and integrated health care in order to improve the health status of the population.
And this leads me to the second issue. It is my strong conviction, almost 30 years after, that the Alma Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care is still valid and that the Primary Health Care approach is still very appropriate, not only for Africa but for the rest of the world. If its implementation has to be improved, we shall identify the constraints and remove them. We shall adapt Primary Health Care to the 21st century. Therefore, I strongly call upon you, the WHO and our health partners to put Primary Health Care again on the focus of the priorities of the international health agenda.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am encouraged to see that the topics discussed in the previous Assembly, as well as those being discussed during this session, contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Six out of eight Goals and nine out of eighteen targets of the Millennium Development Goals are linked to health and health related areas. The interventions needed to meet these targets call for interrelated health actions: for example reducing maternal and child mortality cannot be looked at separately because maternal mortality contributes to a high proportion of child mortality also.
This year, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Safe Motherhood Initiative. Let’s take the momentum to reinforce our strategies in order to achieve the goals we committed ourselves in Nairobi. In this connection the Government of Mozambique welcomes the Initiative by the Prime Minister of Norway of congregating efforts from all over the world in order to achieve the 4th and 5th Millennium Development Goals.
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Before I conclude, I extend my congratulations to Dr Margaret Chan, the Director-General, for the initiatives taken to reduce the suffering of humanity and promote health in less than half a year in office.
Finally I wish the Sixtieth World Health Assembly every success.
I thank you all for your kind attention.