| JOHANNESBURG--Health
is at the heart of sustainable development and
the eradication of poverty will not be possible
in the absence of better all-round health. That
was the message delivered by David Nabarro, Director
for Sustainable Development, Health and Environment,
World Health Organization (WHO), at the second
plenary meeting Monday morning at the World Summit
on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The theme
of the meeting was "Health and the Environment," which
was followed by an interactive discussion, moderated
by Jan Pronk, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary
General.
Dr.
Nabarro also linked health with greater productivity
in his presentation. "If we spend an additional
$30 billion a year on health, it will result in a
six-fold increase in productivity and a saving of
eight million lives every year," he said.
Some
people had been criticizing the Johannesburg
conference,
by saying that it would all be
talk and very little achievement, he said,
but there was already a great deal of understanding
that people's health was central to development
and poverty reduction. "There is also
a greater sense of urgency on health issues,
on diseases like HIV Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.
We have set a target of reducing poverty by
half by 2015, which can only be done by improving
the health of the poor."
Referring
to the acronym being used by the UN Secretary
General for this conference, WEHAB
(water, energy, health, agriculture and bio-diversity),
he explained that good health meant access
to safe water, access to energy, access to
agricultural production and access to a healthier
environment. "A third of all illnesses
are due to a poor environment."
The
health systems to be set up must also be
attuned
to the health needs of the people,
especially the poor people, Dr Nabarro added. "We
must take forward inter-sector actions. All
government departments must contribute to health.
We also need new and broader alliances, along
with targets and time-tables and the transfer
of technologies."
But,
above all, better health needed cash ? without
significant additional resources,
the poor would not enjoy the health they needed,
he said. "We have the road maps, so there
is nothing to stop us from putting health at
the heart of sustainable development."
When
queried by Pronk on the lessons the World
Bank had
learned over the last decade, Robert
Hecht, Manager of Health at the World Bank,
admitted that environmental health issues "tended
to fall between the cracks" and argued
that more inter-sector cooperation was called
for. "The health sector needs to work
together with the energy sector to reduce air
pollution, for instance."
Secondly,
he said, there was an urgent need to tackle
new and emerging health hazards,
of which AIDS was the most obvious. "But
there is also the epidemic of tobacco and smoking,
which will cause enormous damage in ten to
15 years time, especially to developing countries." Finally,
more money was needed in the health area, he
added. "But to make money work, you need
sound policies."
Vanessa
Tobin, Chief, Water, Environment and Sanitation
Section, Unicef, pointed out that
over 10 million children were dying every year
and that the cost of just a few dollars per
child for immunization would prevent enormous
suffering. "We also must bear in mind
that without good health, children cannot get
the most out of education."
Kunio
Waki, Deputy Executive Director, UNFPA, said
he
regretted that in Dr. Nabarro's presentation,
no mention had been made of reproductive health
issues, nor of population dynamics. "There
is also the gender issue, the empowerment of
women and the fact that maternal mortality
rates remain very high ? I feel that all this
needs greater focus here."
Angela Mathee, Senior Specialist Scientist
at the South African Medical Research Council
said that the contribution of indigenous medicines
must also be taken into account when talking
about health and poverty eradication.
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