Honourable Mr Patric Pillay — Minister of Foreign Affairs of Seychelles
Honourable Vice-President and Minister of Health of Comoros
Honourable Ministers of Health of Seychelle, Cape Vert and Mauritius
Distinguished representative of São Tome and PrIncipe
Representatives of WHO
Dear colleagues, friends and guests
On behalf of the World Health Organisation, let me first of all to thank the Government of the Republic of Seychelles for the hospitality and co-sponsoring this first “Meeting of African Ministers of Health of Small Island Developing States”.
The health situation in the 46 Member-States of WHO African region presents common features but also specificities that are dominant in Island States, for which WHO should dedicate a particular attention.
We are aware of the Mauritius Declaration of January 2005, issued by the United Nations at the occasion of the “ International Meeting to Review the implementation of the Programme of Action for Sustainable development of Small Island Developing States”. At the occasion, it was expressed concern about increasing incidence of health issues, and commitment to address them comprehensively, at regional and global level.
Honourable Ministers,
Distinguished participants,
The meeting starting today offers the opportunity for us to identify and discuss the critical health problems and the way health systems are responding to them. It is also an opportunity to exchange experiences and views about the future developments towards the highest possible level of health in your countries.
From the data and information available in WHO we made a comparative analysis of economic indicators, health systems design, resources allocation, diseases pattern and critical health indicators. We will update the information with your inputs during the meeting and we should be able to more clearly identify commonalities and differences and explore the most pertinent ideas and arguments to make a special case for sustainable health development.
Based on data internationally available, health systems of Small Island States in the African Region show the following features:
- They are more decentralized and the access of people to health care is quite good;
- The MMR and U5 mortality are much lower on the average;
- There is a double burden of diseases with a very high emphasis on NCDs;
- The total population of countries ranges from 81.000 in Seychelles to 1.2 million in Mauritius;
- Life Expectancy at birth ranges from 59 years in Cap Vert to 76 in Seychelles;
- The per-capita expenditure for health per habitant per year ranges from 25 USD in Comoros to 599 in Seychelles;
- All countries are exposed to various natural disasters: cyclones, tsunamis, vulcanos and even floods;
- On the average your countries are closer to the health Milenium Development Goals and some attained already some of these goals.
But, as you are well aware, health for all is a timeless goal; and there is always room for improvements, particularly in relation to emerging problems and new public health threats.
Special mention is made of the recent outbreaks of chikungunya in Comoros, Mauritius and Seychelles with significant morbidity and mortality. We have to strengthen epidemio logical surveillance among other measures to make possible early detection and better management of future occurrences.
We hope during this meeting we will develop a framework contributing to:
- Enhanced performance of national health systems;
- Technical Cooperation among the 5 countries in the field of health, with WHO playing a facilitating role; and
- More focus of WHO Regional and Global Programmes responding more accurately to critical health problems of Small Islands Developing States in the African Region.
Dear Ministers and participants,
We are undertaking reforms to decentralize and strengthen technical support to countries in view of accelerating the implementation of Health MDGs in the African region. This process should also provide better response to the specific needs of small island states.
I thank again the honourable Ministers of Health for their presence. I am sure that their leadership and the expertise we called to this meeting will yield new ideas and strategic directions for improving our joint actions, for improved safety and health of our populations, in particular the poor and most vulnerable.
I thank you for your attention.