World Health Organisation

The fact that the European Commission hosted a conference to discuss and assert their role in global health should be celebrated.

A range of stakeholders were involved alongside high level speakers such as Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The stated objectives were to drive forward coherence and define recommendations for taking the Commission’s Communique forward.

The major messages coming out of the conference were all very positive

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I attended a conference on 5 June on strengthening midwifery. The conference was organised by the International Confederation of Midwives and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It was really lovely to meet midwives from all over the world and discuss the issues around providing care for mothers and babies.

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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.

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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.

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Information overload on just day one of an international conference on the global health challenges of tomorrow. I’m scanning the list of speakers in the hope that someone will step onto the stage and just tell me what the real issue – and the real solution – is. We didn’t organise this one, so there’s no ‘real’ person to make it ‘real’. Then I finally get the shocking story with simple solutions my tired brain and downcast heart have been craving. Thank you WHO. But the voice of the mother or father who knows what it means to have a healthy child is still missing. This is a gap that we can and should fill.

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I attended a two day workshop last week organised by the Global Fund on the joint platform to strengthen health systems. The Global Fund wanted to update civil society (mainly ‘northern’ NGOs with a few representatives from ‘southern’ civil society) on the progress of the initiative and get our views on the direction the platform should take.

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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.

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The Executive Board of the World Health Organisation is a select group of governments who get to agree the documents that will be debated at the World Health Assembly in May. Three weeks into the new decade, with final six years towards the Millennium Development Goals target date somehow seeming even more pressing, it is exactly the right time to ask health ministers from around the world to join in the EVERY ONE campaign.

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I was one of the speakers in a meeting on Wednesday morning on the Task Force on Innovative Financing for Health Systems, at the World Health Assembly. I kept my contributions short and posed some questions. In particular, I wanted to get commitments from donors that new money (if it appears) will be targeted to help national governments build health systems, not repeating the mistakes of the past.

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The World Health Assembly – a gathering of the great and the good in global health…

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