Mr. Chairman,
Honourable Dr Wilfred Machage, Assistant Minister of Health, representing the Government of Kenya
Your Excellency, President Joaquim Chissano, our Chief Guest Honourable Ministers of Health
Representative of the Director General of WHO
Representatives of multilateral and bilateral agencies and NGOs Colleagues,
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I welcome you all to this Partners Forum on Health organized by the World Health Organization in the beautiful city of Nairobi, Kenya.
Permit me to use this occasion to thank the Government and people of Kenya for having accepted to host this forum. We are most grateful.
May I acknowledge the presence of President Joaquim Chissano who accepted to be our guest of honour. I thank you Your Excellency for honouring us with your presence.
May I also recognize all health partners who responded positively to our call. I should recognize that you are generously supporting African Governments and people to respond to critical health challenges that are still responsible for high diseases burden, early loses of human lives and delaying the economic progress and development in Africa.
We are most grateful for all the support. We are meeting today to stimulate the dialogue among partners for health and brainstorm on our collective agenda in support to Sub Saharan countries to accelerate progress towards health MDGs.
Excellencies, distinguished guests,
Allow me to reflect briefly on the health status in the African Region.
In relation to child health, MDG-4 calls for reduction of under five mortality by two thirds by 2015. According to available evidence under five mortality rate is currently 175 per 1000 live births.
The current annual reduction of under five mortality rate is 0.4% and needs to be increased to 8.2% to achieve MDG-4. Scaling up of few cost-effective interventions such as breastfeeding, improved complementary feeding including Vit-A supplementation, immunization, prevention and early treatment of malaria and antibiotic treatment of pneumonia and dysentery, improved ORT use for diarrhoea will contribute to the achievement of MDG-4.
ln order to achieve MDG 5, maternal mortality in the region must be reduced from the current 1000 deaths per 100,000 Live Births to 228 per 100,000 Live Births. Current estimates indicate that at the current pace, at least 140 years-is required to reach MDG- 5 in Africa. Access to and availability of skilled attendance at birth is the single most important intervention to reduce maternal mortality. However only an estimated 46% of deliveries are currently assisted by qualified health personnel. This situation is aggravated by the weak performance of health systems and the fact that government and partners need to pay more attention.
MDG-6 deals with HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. In relation to HIV/AIDS the goal is to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. Africa is home to more than 60% of people living with HIV/AIDS in the world and 72% of HIV/AIDS related deaths. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is fuelling tuberculosis.
To achieve MDG-6, there is a need to increase coverage of ARTs which currently stands at 23%. In addition, we need to accelerate access to preventive interventions, which is currently very low despite an alarming incidence of HIV infection.
For TB, 80% of new cases in the world are in Sub-Saharan Africa. There is a need to increase the case detection rate currently estimated at 46% and improve the treatment success rate which is currently 72%. It is considered that nine countries are high burden in the African Region out of the 22 identified world- wide. In our view, this does not reflect the reality since many more countries are equally affected. It is observed that Multi-drug resistance to TB is now occurring In the Region. In fact in 2005 the Ministers of Health declared TB as an emergency and called for more attention and resources.
Malaria is estimated to kill about one million people every year in the region, in particular children and pregnant women. Scaling up interventions should focus on early detection, evidence-based ACT treatment policy, intermittent preventive treatment and vector control measures.
There is a need to improve partners' coordination and harmonization in support to national malaria control programmes.
It is important to bear in mind that effective delivery of the above interventions presupposes an improved performance of health systems. This means that we have to address more effectively the issues of human resources, health financing and availability of relevant technologies.
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
The African Regional Health Report launched in 2006 provides regional data on the health of the people in the Region. It under scores the feasibility and the impact of some of the health MDG related interventions. It shows therefore that it is possible to obtain results in the African region when governments are committed and resources are made available.
I should reiterate that the regional office of WHO for Africa is actively contributing together with other regional offices and Head Quarters to the implementation of the 11th General Programme of Work of WHO for the period 2006- 2015. In this vein, relevant reforms are underway in the region to reposition the organization in the new context. We want to further strengthen our technical capacity at country level, to become more reliable and effective partner in health in line with our international mandate.
Finally, I would like to appeal to all Partners to put in action the principles of harmonization and alignment as spelt out in the Paris Declaration. Despite our diversity, I am very optimistic that we will be able, through open dialogue and critical analysis, to revitalize efforts towards achieving common goals that are ultimately the aspirations of people and their governments.
I thank you.