Speech at Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting

Welcome

Your Excellencies, Ministers, fellow participants – welcome to Geneva and to the Commonwealth Health Ministers’ Meeting, held as always on the eve of the World Health Assembly.

I thank my colleagues at the Commonwealth Secretariat and the teams that have worked with us for the huge effort that has gone into facilitating this meeting.

I also want to pay tribute to the Hon. Professor Dr Ruhal Haque, Minister for Health and Family Welfare in Bangladesh, who will soon take the chair.

Context

There is a rather extraordinary feature to this meeting; it is unusual at gatherings such as this for the same theme to be adopted in successive years.

You are returning to the pressing topic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

In part this is because of the impact NCDs are having right across the Commonwealth.

The customary place and timing of the Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting on the eve of the World Health Assembly has given it a special role in influencing the global agenda for health issues.

Your deliberations have the potential this year to make more impact than ever before since we are in the run-up to the UN High Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control NCDs.

The importance of that meeting is attested by the fact that it is only the second ever UN High Level Meeting on a global health issue – the first being the UN General Assembly on HIV in 2001.

The importance from a CW perspective is even clearer. When our Heads of Government last met in Trinidad & Tobago in 2009 they issued a statement on NCDs.

They said :

“We recognise that NCDs presently account for over half of all deaths worldwide and that they significantly reduce life expectancy, quality of life and productivity. They place growing pressures on our health systems and our economies, thereby posing a serious threat to sustainable development.”

Later in their statement they went on:

“We will also work to fully integrate NCD prevention and control into our national health systems. In this regard, we will strengthen primary care to address the needs of people who are already facing NCDs, and support the universal access of essential medicines for people living with NCDs.”

And they called for collective CW effort to achieve a UN summit on NCDs in September 2011.

So it has been through the role of the Commonwealth that there is a global focus on NCDs this year. Now we must add value.

Value of CHMMs

The Commonwealth Health Ministers Meetings are the Commonwealth at its best.

They bring together talent and expertise that can make all the difference as to how we move forward on topics that will make life better for the poor and marginalised – and it is they who suffer disproportionately from the NCD epidemic.

Poverty is both a cause and a result of NCDs and your deliberations will be in the context of a renewed commitment around the world to tackling poverty and its causes – particularly as we move towards the target year of the MDGs.

One of the great advantages of assembling Health Ministers and professionals from across the Commonwealth each year is the opportunity it provides for exchanging expertise, knowledge and ideas about those innovative approaches that could make a difference.

The record of our ministerials shows how, in the relaxed and collegiate atmosphere that is the hallmark of Commonwealth occasions, we are able to act in identifying topics that should warrant global attention. This is helpful in generating serious thought and progress on challenging issues.

Review & planning

These occasions are an opportunity to look back as well as to look forward.

Some of your time will be spent taking stock of progress on initiatives arising from earlier meetings. It is always important to assess the effectiveness of past interventions and also of work in progress.

We have demonstrated that time spent in preparation is well invested. The strong bonds that bind us together in the Commonwealth mean that our preparatory work is a team effort – and for that reason all the more valuable and effective.

In the Commonwealth over at least the past three years we have been engaged in a series of planning meetings and supporting regional efforts leading up to the forthcoming UN High Level Meeting.

Further back we participated in the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit on NCDs in Port-of-Spain in 2007.

And I hope Dr Haque will take back to his colleagues and staff our acknowledgement of the key role played by Bangladesh in advocating for the UN Resolution on Diabetes in 2006.

Childbirth and maternal health is another area where our intervention can make a difference. The Commonwealth Secretariat has been in the forefront of advocacy for increasing the number of midwives by half a million to counter the global scandal that it is that number women that die each year in childbirth and to meet MDG 5.

We have also taken practical steps and placed a long term consultant in the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community to build up the capacity of Institutions of Higher Learning to train educators who will in turn train skilled birth attendants.

In that same region of Africa, and working in partnership with the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, we have also developed a programme to strengthen leadership of the regulatory councils for nursing and midwifery.

Causes

We need to address the fundamental causes that do so much to raise the risk of disease.

Good diet and the costs of medication are simply beyond the pocket of huge sections of our populations.

That is why we must be tireless in our work to find ways of reducing poverty and overcoming these factors which trap families in a cycle of deprivation and disease.

Lifestyle

We should feel passionately about the well-being of young people, about empowering them with opportunities to make responsible choices.

The choices they make when young may not only set the pattern for the rest of their lives, but affect their future health and susceptibility to disease.

Above all, we need to devise strategies for persuading young people of the risks posed by physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, tobacco and harmful consumption of alcohol – and for getting the message through to them.

Whether they live in poor countries or rich countries, in large nations or small ones, young people deserve to grow up shielded from advertising campaigns that encourage consumption that is irresponsible or injurious to their health.

Environmental factors

There is persuasive evidence that global warming will aggravate several non communicable diseases, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease, through increased exposure to heat.

Increased pollution caused by use of fossil fuels will also increase the severity of chronic lung disease.

The Commonwealth’s concern for climate change was clearly expressed at that last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and we should follow that up by drawing greater attention to the impact of climate change on health.

Commonwealth responses

So what should be the response of the Commonwealth?

We should be alarmed that the rise of NCDs in the Commonwealth seems set to continue for the immediate future.

The WHO “Action Plan for the Global Strategy for the Prevention and Control of NCDs” gives a figure of 60% for the number of deaths worldwide due to NCDs in 2008, with a projection of a further 17% increase over the 10 years to 2018.

We need to arrest that trend. Of all regions, Africa is estimated to experience the greatest increase in NCD deaths; an increase of 27% over the next 10 years.

Our networks are tailor-made to foster links between governments, academics, and civil society – and it is clear that the multi-disciplinary initiatives necessary to combat non-communicable disease risk effectively cannot be dealt with by the health sector alone.

Our new portal, called “Commonwealth Connects”, will be a superb one-stop shop for sharing knowledge throughout our networks and beyond.

You will be receiving a presentation on this today, which I hope will enthuse you with its potential. This is our 21^st Century approach to networking, information sharing, transacting and partnering.

Programmes aimed at limiting or preventing NCDs have to start at an early age – that means with children and young people.

Of the two billion citizens in the Commonwealth over half of them are under 25 years of age.

“Commonwealth Connects” will be a great help in communicating that message.

I look forward to hearing the assessment by Dr Ala Alwan, Assistant Director-General for Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health of the World Health Organization of the NCD burden within the Commonwealth.

That assessment will help inform your discussions as you move towards agreeing on a way forward.

By agreeing on Commonwealth objectives for the High Level Meeting on NCDs we have the opportunity of delivering viable responses to the health issues we confront - not only in the Commonwealth but also in the wider world.

Distinguished Ministers and Delegates, I wish you all possible success with your deliberations.