Brazzaville, 31 August -- The Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr LEE Jong-wook, has proposed a 9% increase in assessed contributions by WHO's Member States.

"Previous projections of budget growth had been matched by the generosity of our donors, enabling us to achieve the results to which we were committed. But essential activities cannot depend on generosity alone. I am therefore proposing an increase of 9% in assessed contributions from Member States," Dr Lee said Tuesday in his address to the 54th session of the WHO Africa Regional Committee for Africa in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

Dr Lee stated that at present, the regular budget in assessed contributions represented only 30% of WHO's overall expenditure, and that if the current trend continued, it would be only 17 % by 2015.

He also spoke on security, equity and unity as the guiding principles of WHO programmes and activities.

On health security, he said that major outbreaks of disease constituted a threat both within the region and globally. However, measures, including a revision of the International Health Regulations, dissemination of relevant information and effective action to contain them were being put in place to ensure rapid response to the earliest signs of outbreaks and other health emergencies.

He stated that inequity was the root cause of much of the danger and insecurity in the world today, illustrating the point with lack of access to AIDS treatment which he described as a glaring example of both insecurity and inequity. "But action on an unprecedented scale is now in progress to tackle this injustice," Dr Lee said. He stated that more than US$20 billion had been pledged for integrated AIDS prevention and care over the next five years. He noted also that and that the fall in the price of the lowest-price triple-drug regimen to about US$140 per person per year had brought HIV treatment within the reach of more countries and more people.

He stated that twelve countries, ten of them in the African region, had set targets for 2005 to get treatment to 50% or more of the people who need it and that guidelines for high-quality treatment using standardized regimes and simplified clinical monitoring were now available. "We must not relent in our efforts to reach the target for treatment and to accelerate HIV/AIDS prevention well beyond December 2005", Dr Lee said.

On polio eradication, Dr Lee observed that the re-infection of 12 previously polio-free countries in Africa showed both the extraordinary success that had been achieved, as well as its fragility. He added that the 22-country synchronized campaigns that will begin in the first week of October must reach nearly 74 million children to get the eradication campaign back on track.

Dr Lee stated that although guinea worm was close to eradication and only six countries remained endemic for leprosy in the region, less progress had been made towards reaching the Abuja targets for malaria control. However, major efforts were underway to change the situation for the better in the near future.

Dr Lee urged countries in the region to follow the example of Kenya, Mauritius and Seychelles in ratifying the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control so that the Convention could fulfil its great potential for saving lives.

He also touched on maternal and child health, noting that Africa was the only region in which the number of mothers dying at childbirth was rising. However, he added, a large number of organizations in the region led by WHO had combined forces to change the situation. Their first step, early this year, was the drafting of a roadmap for attaining the Millennium Development Goals related to maternal and child health.

On unity as one of the guiding principles of WHO programmes and activities, Dr Lee said: "Unity is indispensable for effective action, and it requires us to work more closely than ever before with partners. The new African Union renews hope and strength in the struggle to achieve this in Africa. We must work to promote synergy with it, NEPAD (the New Partnership for Africa's Development) and the initiatives coming from regional economic communities in the coming months."

Dr Lee paid special tribute to the outgoing WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim Samba.

"I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank him (Samba) for his strong leadership, his dynamism and his great achievements in Onchocersiasis control and many other areas. Dr Samba, you will be a very hard act to follow," the WHO Director General said.

For further information contact:

Samuel T. Ajibola 

Tel: + 47 241 39378 

Email : ajibolas [at] afro.who.int