- His Excellency Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
- Honourable Chairperson of the Third Conference of African Ministers of Health
- Her Excellency, The Commissioner for Social Affairs of the African Union
- Honourable Ministers of Health and Heads of Delegations,
- The Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Representatives of the International Organizations
- Dear Colleagues of the UN System,
- Distinguished guests,
- Representatives of Civil Society,
- Members of the Media,
- Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of Dr Margaret Chan, the Director General of WHO, it is an honour and a privilege for me to address this distinguished audience on the occasion of the 4th Session of the African Union Ministers of Health.
I wish to thank the African Union (AU) for inviting the World Health Organisation to contribute to this Conference. The presence of United Nations agencies and other health partners demonstrates the African Union political leadership in health and development matters.
The choice of the theme ‘Universal Access to Quality Health Services: Improve Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health’ for the current Conference reflects the interest to address critical public health problems confronting Africa, which require more attention at political, technical and operational level.
Therefore, I wish to welcome the proposed campaign by the African Union on the Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa. In our view the campaign’s strong focus on advocacy will accelerate the translation of the national Road Maps into concrete actions at community and family levels towards effective and significant reduction of maternal deaths.
Unfortunately, current trends, if unchanged, show that many countries in Africa are unlikely to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4, 5 and 6 by 2015.
For example, Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is extremely high at about 1000 deaths per 100,000 live births. And I should add that this indicator did not improve in Sub Saharan Africa during the last ten years. Another example is that the annual incidence of Tuberculosis got worse during the same period mainly due to co-infection with HIV.
Therefore, universal access to quality health services needs to be guaranteed. The weak performance of health systems is a major cause of the prevailing health situation. But I am happy to report that many countries in the continent are currently undertaking major reforms to address the key bottlenecks that compromise health systems performance. I wish to recognize the leadership of the Ministers of Health in the defining the agenda and conducting reform processes. Some health indicators are improving in some countries and this gives us hope that we can make it!
Given the persistent challenges, there is urgent need to scale-up coverage of essential health interventions. Primary Health Care with its principles and values of social justice, equity, solidarity, effective community participation and multi-sectoral action, offers a sustainable approach to redesign national health systems in a flexible manner according to the specific context of each country and community.
The continuing relevance of this approach was underscored by the adoption, last year, of the Ouagadougou and Qatar Declarations on Primary Health Care and Health Systems. Now what is urgently needed is accelerated implementation and monitoring progress of the health status of people. Otherwise we may not make the expected progress towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
- Honourable Ministers,
- Dear Guests,
- Ladies and Gentlemen,
The collaboration between the African Union and the World Health Organisation on health dates back several decades to the era of the Organisation of African Unity, and has grown from strength to strength in the past years. It has also been enhanced and complemented by the growing collaboration with the Regional Economic Communities.
This partnership is founded on our shared belief in health as a basis for development.
I am pleased to report that partnerships for health, in general has improved. However, we recognized the need for better coordination to ensure harmonized and aligned support to national health policies and plans. The harmonization for Health in Africa (HHA) mechanism and the International Health Partnership Plus (IHP+), in which Ethiopia was one of the first countries to sign a compact illustrates the current efforts to adhere to the principles of the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness and the Accra agenda for action.
- Honourable Ministers,
- Distinguished Guests,
- Ladies and gentlemen,
Significant challenges still remain in the area of health. During the past few weeks, we were struck with the emergence of a new influenza virus, A H1N1. From Mexico, the disease has spread to other parts of the world. So far no cases have been reported in Africa.
African countries are particularly vulnerable to the impact of epidemics, but I am happy to report that many countries in the Continent have activated preparedness and response plans. WHO is monitoring the outbreak and has provided technical guidance to all countries. In addition, WHO has already dispatched stocks of Tamiflu to Member States to strengthen their response in case of outbreak. We do recognize also the immediate reaction and support of other important health partners.
I wish to seize this opportunity to appeal to you, Honourable Ministers, to strengthen your “national emergency preparedness and response plans” against the risk of pandemic influenza, with particular emphasis on disease surveillance, stockpiling of relevant medicines and taking appropriate human protection measures.
I want to reaffirm the commitment of the Director General of WHO, the Regional Director for Eastern Mediterranean and myself to continue providing technical guidance according to the available knowledge and tools. WHO staff will continue working closely with other relevant United Nations agencies, the African Union and health development partners to support member states in order to optimize health outcomes in Africa.
I thank you.