Margaret Chan, the Executive Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO), on Monday urged Member States to place "fairness" at the core of decisions to protect the most vulnerable against major worldwide crises.
"Fairness, I believe, is at the heart of our ambitions in global health. 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," Chan told senior government officials and international experts attending a Forum on Advancing Global Health convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
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, Chan told the high-level meeting.
"Global warming, hikes in fuel and food prices, the economic meltdown and now the A-H1N1 influenza pandemic hit hardest in developing countries," she added.
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".
In his opening address to the Forum, Ban said "Health is the tie that binds all the Millennium Development Goals MDGs together," in reference 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, he said, adding "that is why global health is a top priority for me". |