I am in Geneva this week attending the World Health Organisation’s Executive Board meeting. Today I had the opportunity to make a statement in front of government officials from around the world and the WHO’s Director-General, which was nerve-wracking!
Back in January, I wrote about a commission of policy makers and health experts created to implement a new global strategy to improve women and children’s health. Over the past six months the Commission on Information and Accountability has been working hard to develop a mechanism to ensure that the strategy is not only implemented but has a real impact on the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable women and children.
At the World Health Assembly in Geneva, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Margaret Chan has spoken about the right to health and called on delegates to “Remember the people”.
This week I am part of a small delegation of Save the Children staff attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The WHA is attended by delegations from more than 190 countries and meets each year to determine the policies of the World Health Organisation.
The 2010 World Health Assembly is drawing to a close today. Generally it has been a positive one, with a new agreed code of practice on international recruitment of healthcare workers and a strong resolution on infant and young child feeding which increases scrutiny and regulation of food manufacturers.
Despite the wonderful speech by the President of Liberia, the Millennium Development Goals discussion yesterday was disappointing.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female President of Liberia (and indeed the first female President in Africa!), is talking at the World Health Assembly (WHA) right now. She is absolutely inspiring: reiterating that people should not have to die because they are poor, that mothers should not be faced with the impossible choice of feeding their family or saving the life of their child. She is calling again for free health services.
Yesterday the Commonwealth Health Ministers had their meeting before the start of the World Health Assembly. The Commonwealth is a strange beast, a range of English-speaking countries, many of them former British colonies, that still hold together as a group.
The WHA is seen by some as an ineffective UN meeting but it has much greater legitimacy than the G8/G20 on account of its democracy. Unlike the rich countries’ clubs of the G8 and G20, all countries, however poor, have the right to speak out and to vote.
The discussions on infant-feeding at the World Health Organisation are under the shadow of the emergency in Haiti. We know that every year, one-third of all child deaths have undernutrition as the direct underlying cause. So promoting breastfeeding and stopping the inappropriate promotion of breast-milk substitutes and other products is vital to protect children’s lives.
