Programme Director,
Former First Lady and Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Ms Graca Machel,
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Margaret Chan,
Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi,
Deputy Minister of health Joe Phaahla,
Ministers and Deputy Ministers from around the world,
Senior Representatives of United Nations Agencies and Bilateral Organisations,
Technical experts, members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen.
A very good morning!
It is a pleasure to stand before you and welcome you. I am happy that you have chosen to hold your forum here.
I am very pleased that my first formal engagement with the health sector takes place in a forum focused on women and their newborn babies. Women give life, and the right to life is one that we all hold sacred. In the words of our icon and leader, the late Nelson Mandela,
“There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
I would like to commend the Partnership for continuing to expose the souls of our nations by holding us accountable for ensuring that women and their newborn babies access the care they need throughout their lives. We all acknowledge that although much has been achieved in this area, a lot more remains to be done.
This meeting comes at a critical time as you have heard, we have less than 500 days before the deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
This forum provides us with a unique opportunity to pause so we can reflect on our achievements and focus on what needs to be done to accelerate progress towards achievement of the MDGs. The work that is done through this Partnership is therefore key to all our future plans and programmes, because our efforts have meaning only if those who are born today do survive to achieve their full human potential.
The health sector has played a critical role in contributing to the gains we have made and those of you present here today deserve our acknowledgement. On behalf of all the countries you are supporting, including South Africa, a very big thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen,
To sustain the gains we've made, we need to deal decisively with the structural factors which contribute to ill-health, health inequity and premature death and morbidity. Many of these factors lie beyond the purview of the health sector and thus require a comprehensive multi-sectoral approach.
The Commission on Social Determinants of Health has contributed significantly to our understanding of what needs to be done to ensure we achieve some of the health outcomes that this Partnership seeks. In its report, the commission said:
“Our children have dramatically different life chances depending on where they are born. In Japan and Sweden they can expect to live more than 80 years; in Brazil, 72 years; in India, 63 years; and in one of several African countries, fewer than 50 years. And within countries, the differences in life chances are dramatic and are seen worldwide. The poorest of the poor have high levels of illness and premature mortality. In countries at all levels of income, health and illness follow a social gradient: the lower the socio-economic position, the worse the health.
“Where systematic differences in health are judged to be avoidable by reasonable action they are, quite simply, unfair. It is this that we label health inequity. Putting right these inequities--- the huge and remediable differences in health between and within countries—is a matter of social justice. Reducing these inequities is an ethical imperative. Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ours is an inequitable world. Health equity is a global concern and not a challenge unique to developing countries. While we acknowledge this, we know that our continent, Africa, has had to contend with a disproportionate burden of disease due to the HIV pandemic and other communicable diseases that continue to impact our people. In spite of this, we have made huge progress.
Through strong political leadership, many countries in Africa have made significant progress. In the health sector, advances in diagnostics, drug development, research and numerous other fields have contributed significantly to improved health outcomes. Millions of people now have access to life-saving medication, life expectancy has started to increase. and more lives are being saved. The support of the development community, civil society, and a wide range of stakeholders has made all this possible. We need to sustain this partnership going forward.
The economic environment is currently a dominant feature of global discourse. Governments the world over are individually and collectively seeking solutions to ensure healthy and sustainable growth in the medium to long term. At the same time, we need to ensure that economic policies are balanced by a social policy framework that achieves reasonable fairness and equitable distribution of health benefits.
Governments have the responsibility to ensure that policies affirm the inextricable link between health and development. The right to the conditions necessary to achieve the highest attainable standard of health is a universal right and it is thus the duty of governments to respect, protect and fulfil this right.
Our approach must therefore not merely focus on income, but must also include everything that impacts on the human condition. Achieving health equity will mean that human potential is not determined by the social gradient where the poorest of the poor have the highest levels of illness and premature mortality.
We must strive to ensure that women receive the best care for themselves and their new-borns. We must also ensure that children receive appropriate support, stimulation and nutrition. We must empower young people to attain their full human potential, while we secure workplaces that contribute to economic development, and where adults are able to contribute to the wellbeing of their families and society. The elderly need our love, support and respect.
This, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the world we all want to create.
South Africa has adopted a National Development Plan (NDP), which provides the vision and strategy for the development of our country to 2030. The plan acknowledges that our country faces a quadruple burden of disease. These are HIV and AIDS and TB; high levels of maternal and child mortality rates, an increasing burden of disease from non-communicable diseases as well as violence, injuries and trauma.
With these in mind the NDP sets out interventions and a clear set of targets to be achieved by 2030. In this context the NDP fully acknowledges the importance of the social determinants of health and has also prioritised interventions with respect to water and sanitation, access to good quality education, proper housing, employment as well as the need for social protection. We are faced with a plurality of options but we have also gained sufficient experience and knowledge to recalibrate our approach to these very complex issues.
The implementation of the National Development Plan will support our commitment to achieve health equity amongst other things; through the implementation of an urban and rural development strategy which includes good environmental designs that encourage activities which promote and support healthy lifestyles for example and by investing in infrastructure policies that support rural-to-urban migration.
We plan to build on our successes in implementing the Campaign for the Accelerated Reduction of Maternal and Child Mortality in Africa (CARMMA). We are pleased to be a co-host of the partnership Forum precisely because it has the potential to strengthen CARMMA across our continent.
Finally, allow me to say a few words about the post-2015 agenda.
It is critical that health remains a vital part of the post-2015 agenda. Certainly, our government fully supports the continuation of the work that we started as part of the Millennium Development Goals, given that much of the work is still incomplete in South Africa and in other parts of Africa. Equally, we support the inclusion of non-communicable diseases and universal health coverage in the post-2015 agenda.
On behalf of President Zuma and the people of South Africa, allow me to wish you a successful forum, as the health of our people depends on the work that we do.
Let us continue to work together to ensure that no woman dies while giving life.
I thank you!
