WHO Director General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland on Tuesday in Harare appealed to donor governments and external sources of assistance to respond "promptly and generously " to the humanitarian crisis facing southern Africa.

"People's survival and sustainable development are at stake. Our actions today have the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives, and to shape the future of this sub-region," Dr Brundtland said.

" We should work for lasting improvements in primary health services. We want to enable the people affected by this crisis to be able to look forward to healthy livelihoods once the worst is over. We want health services to have improved -- not deteriorated -- after the crisis is over."

Dr Brundtland was speaking at a meeting of health ministers from ten southern African countries and senior officials of the World Health Organization (WHO). The meeting is examining the health sector response to the acute and large-scale humanitarian crisis facing the sub-region.

She described the crisis as a severe blow to the millions of people affected, and to the development efforts of governments of the region. The crisis was also reversing many gains achieved by several southern African countries in health development and in poverty reduction, she said.

The WHO Director General said at least 14 million people were caught up in the crisis -- in Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and parts of Mozambique - and that as many as 300,000 additional people could die of preventable causes in the next six months if the most vulnerable were not assisted to survive.

She added that there was also unacceptable human suffering, due to different causes, in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and that many people were also at risk in Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania and the poorest parts of South Africa.

Dr Brundtland stated that famine had serious health implications because food shortages were followed by illness. "The solution (to famine) is food supplies, but to be effective, food aid must be combined with health services. The people weakened by hunger can survive by receiving the treatment they need for diseases that otherwise will cost them their lives," she said.

She also hoped that insights emerging from the meeting would inform contributions by delegates to the ongoing World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In her remarks, the Executive Director of UNICEF, Ms Carol Bellamy, said that the United Nations took the humanitarian crisis in southern Africa seriously and called for a broad response by national governments. She also spoke of the multidimensional nature of the crisis and the need to strengthen the health systems of countries in the region. She pledged UNICEF's commitment to helping to improve the situation in the region in partnership with governments, WHO, NGOs and other partners. 

For further information, please contact

Youcef Ait-Chellouche, Emergency and Humanitarian Action Unit 
Tel: + 1 321 953 9314; 
Email: chellouchey [at] afro.who.int

Samuel T. Ajibola, Public Information and Communication Unit 
World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa 
P.O. Box 6 Brazzville, Congo. 
E-mail: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int
Tel: 1 321 953 9378; 
Fax: 1 321 953 9513 
From 26 - 28 August in Harare: 091 321 405