- Your Excellency, Honourable Mwai Kibaki, the President of the Republic of Kenya,
- Honourable Ministers and Assistant Ministers,
- Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Representatives of Partner Agencies
- Senior Government Officials
- Distinguished participants and guests,
- Dear colleagues from the UN system,
- Ladies and gentlemen,
- All protocols observed
On behalf of the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Margaret Chan, and myself, I welcome you to the Seventh Global Conference on Health Promotion.
Let me present from the onset the apology of the Director General who could not make it to this conference because of overlapping important Organisation business that she has to address elsewhere.
I want to thank you, Your Excellency, President Mwai Kibaki, for accepting to host this conference in your beautiful country, and for honouring us with your presence at this opening ceremony.
I would like also to express my appreciation to the Government of Kenya in particular the Ministries of Health for all the preparations that have been made in creating the optimal conditions for this landmark event.
I thank the many participants who have travelled to Kenya at this occasion from 102 countries around the world. We are very keen to listen and debate about their experiences and new ideas, which could contribute to closing the health promotion implementation gapand improve people's health.
I welcome you all to this Global Conference on Health Promotion in Africa!
Let me recall previous international events on Health Promotion, starting in Ottawa in 1986, through Adelaide in 1988, Sundsvall in 1991, Jakarta in 1997, Mexico City in 2000 and Bangkok in 2005. We have seen the development of health promotion globally. In September 2006, the African Regional Committee of WHO agreed that the 7TH Global conference should be held in Kenya; and the Government of Kenya kindly agreed to host it in Nairobi.
Your coming here is not merely a courtesy or a symbol of solidarity; it is a concrete act to advance health promotion. Previous international conferences on Health Promotion had few participants from Africa. This may reflect Africa's low priority for health promotion. But today we are redressing this imbalance.
The number of African participants present here, this time is more significant; reflecting a new era for Health Promotion, as a vital response to the health problems of people in the entire world.
I note with pleasure that a full day of this conference is devoted to showcasing health promotion in Africa.
- Your Excellency the President,
- Ladies and Gentlemen:
We are gathered to discuss health promotion in the context of many growing challenges. The Millennium Development Goals are far from being reached. New unprecedented challenges to health are coming to the fore: the double burden of disease, emerging new pathogens and diseases, global pandemics, economic downturn, climate change, and food crises. At the same time, poverty remains a matter of worry, while the burden of ill health is inequitably distributed between and within countries.
These problems are major obstacles to the achievement of the universally agreed health goals.
We are eager to see health promotion take a more prominent role in the implementation of primary health care and in responding to the health needs of people.
This is why the theme "Closing the Implementation Gap" is timely.
In this world over-burdened by financial and ecological crisis, in a world of high promises and unmet goals, in a world where access to health care is beyond the reach of many people; the implementation gap is truly a matter of concern.
Consider for a moment the example of maternal mortality. Why should over half a million women die annually in poor countries of causes that could be prevented?
Maternal mortality is one of many poor marks in the implementation scorecard of the Millennium Development Goals.
For example, MDG5 aims at reducing maternal mortality by 2/3 in the year 2015; but Sub-Saharan Africa has note made progress during the last ten years. The current Maternal Mortality Ratio remains the highest in the world, with an average of 1000 deaths per 100.000 live births. This is unacceptable in the light of current knowledge and technology to tackle this specific problem.
We have chosen to address these concerns directly:
- What is the value and the contribution of health promotion to closing these gaps between aspirations and reality, or between good policies and actions?
- Can health promotion save mothers? Or help children survive?
- Are there some practical insights that we can offer to decrease health inequities?
- As you exchange experiences over the next few days, I offer some observations that you may want to consider:
First, it is recognized worldwide that people's health is affected by different determinants such as income, employment, access to health services, basic education, water and sanitation, housing, gender, culture, life-styles and other biological, social and economic factors.
Second, The Commission on Social Determinants of Health and the World Health Assembly consider that to promote health we need to work across different sectors, so that health becomes part of public policies.
Third, The World Health Report 2008 on Primary Health Care, provides the following thrusts to revitalize health systems: leadership in ensuring the health dimension of public policies; making health care universally accessible; making health care people-centred; and being fully accountable in the delivery of health care.
The implementation of all these ideas calls for social participation. Therefore, community participation should remain the cornerstone of primary health care. Also, health promotion is a good way of addressing social determinants of health.
- Your Excellency, Mr President,
- Ladies and gentlemen:
I expect that this forum will provide the opportunity for us to think together and deliberate on some critical issues that have been identified for health promotion such as: health literacy, community empowerment, health systems, social determinants of health, inter-sectoral collaboration, and the human and institutional capacity for health promotion.
I hope that these themes will get your special attention and lead to in-depth reflections and proposed actions to accelerate global and local efforts towards cost-effective and more equitable access to health care and better quality of life. This will ultimately contribute to improved health status of people.
This is our hope!
Let's take action.
On this note, I thank you all for your attention.