26 AUGUST 2002
Honourable Chairperson and I say with great pride and expectation to all the dignitaries assembled here, all protocols observed.
Since Rio we have seen some advances in health, but the reality is that we are not on target to achieve the health goals set by us all at United Nations' General Assemblies. The burden of disease in the developing world remains at untenable levels, compounded by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and by the vicious cycle of underdevelopment and ill health. This burden is not evenly spread - the poor, the marginalized and displaced carry the greatest burden of preventable and treatable disease and death. Women, children, youth, the elderly, orphans and people with disabilities are amongst those that are also vulnerable to disproportionate burdens of ill health. This Summit has within its grasp the opportunity to change this and to make a real contribution to realising the first principle of the Rio declaration, namely that "Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development, entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature." The question is whether we have the will to commit to the concrete actions that will realise this principle - actions that will make a real difference to the worldwide burden of communicable and of non-communicable diseases.
The Draft Plan of Implementation for this Summit offers a birds eye view of the way forward - it covers all the important areas needed to advance health. The challenge is to actually realise the required measures at the scale required to make a meaningful impact on disease and development.
There is no better measure for improving health than reducing poverty. The link is inextricable - a vicious cycle in which poverty leads to poor health and poor health leads to poverty. A real litmus test for sustainable development is whether we will see a commitment to not only immediately tackle the famine unfolding in the Southern African region, but also to support a programme of sustainable development that will obviate such tragedies in the future. Regional development strategies that address poverty, such as our continents' New Partnership for Africa's Development, must surely receive not only your moral support, but actually see us commit to honouring our promises. Without this, our children and generations to come will continue to go to sleep hungry.
We have seen important advances in international programmes that target major diseases such as AIDS, TB and malaria. Indeed, the international partnerships that have developed around the HIV/AIDS epidemic, offer visible evidence of how we can all work together. This example must now be extended to other major burdens of disease and to building the health system capacity required to effectively deliver both prevention of disease, and care. Health systems need more than a quick injection to achieve access for all to competent health care - they need an international partnership for the development of health systems, a partnership with sustained commitment and a willingness to back good words with real deeds. Real deeds include agreeing to an international code of conduct for the ethical recruitment of health personnel from developing countries, and an agreement that ensures that international trade practices are no longer a leading promoter of death through preventing access of the world's poor to basic medicines. We must commit to ensure access to affordable basic drugs as an international human right.
Often closely tied to poverty and ill health are the environmental hazards that lead to millions of deaths, such as from diarrhoea, and from pneumonia from indoor air pollution. World leaders need no reminder of the numbers of people who do not have access to safe water, sanitation or fuel, nor the number of workers exposed daily to conditions that jeopardise their health. The technology to make a difference - to save lives - is there to be shared. The question is whether there is a willingness to do so, or whether life is too cheap to make the change. This Summit provides the opportunity to commit to sharing as a fundamental global value.
Assembled for this Summit we have an unprecedented array of world leaders prepared to address the future of our planet and the health of its people. We have talked enough and, as evidenced by the early agreement on the health chapter of the Draft Plan of Implementation for this Summit, there is little that we disagree on about what needs to be done to improve health. Let this Summit be remembered as the place where we eliminated the barrier that has so often divided the right words form the right deeds. Let us act together and commit together to the following specific actions: