21 january 2002
Honourable Ministers, distinguished delegates, and senior officials. It is my pleasure to bring this important meeting to a close. As I said at the beginning of the meeting, it is a world first and I believe that we can be justifiably proud of our achievement.
It has indeed been an honour for me to host this meeting on behalf of the government of South Africa, and to chair it.
I wish to thank you for the cooperation you have shown, and in this regard, I hope that I am also speaking on behalf of the other chairs.
The time that we have spent finalizing the declaration was especially interesting for me because almost everyone had a contribution to make. Your participation in ratifying the declaration will not only ensure ownership of the resolution for the Prep Comm process and the Summit, but will ensure that each one of us takes the responsibility to plan for the implementation of our ideas.
Our political commitment to putting health at the centre of concerns for sustainabler development is clearly the key to any international movement on the issue. I am as keenly aware as you are of how much work is encompassed in our respective health portfolios. Nevertheless, I am convinced that unless we now add sustainable development to our existing briefs, and unless we keep the goals enunciated in our declaration firmly in mind in our daily work, we will not succeed in changing the lives of our respective peoples.
This leads me to the next step in the process that we have initiated here. We will, I trust, all be attending the World Health Assembly in May, and it is there that we will gain a broader mandate for our thinking. It is my belief that we will be able to be a powerful informative force at the Assembly, and I trust that we will all put ourselves in a suitable position to do this.
In all of our work, both nationally and internationally, it will be crucial for us to build and mobilise the support of other sectors. We must create an understanding within these sectors that "health" means more than "health service delivery programmes" but indeed means "a holistic state of well being."
I sincerely hope that you have had an enjoyable stay in our country, however brief. I would encourage you to visit South Africa not only to debate issues of health, environment and sustainable development, but also to enjoy Africa's warmest welcome. That, by the way, is our tourism slogan.
In closing I must convey my heartfelt gratitude to all of the senior government officials, the academic consultants, the WHO staff members and the many administrative assistants who have contributed to the success of this meeting. In addition, our sincere gratitude goes to the WHO for co-sponsoring and co-funding the meeting.
I also wish to extend our appreciation to the E9 representatives that have travelled from far and wide to attend this meeting.
With those words I declare this meeting closed.