Statement by HE Mr Gary Quinlan. Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations General Assembly regarding Global Health and Foreign Policy, on 9 December 2010.
(as delivered)
Mr President,
Thank you for the opportunity to address the General Assembly on Global Health and Foreign Policy - a crucial linkage that we need to understand better, and manage effectively if the health MDGs are to be reached.
Mr President,
Global health issues have always been a priority for Australian governments. We recognise that improved global health is critical to ending poverty, to achieving security, and to promoting prosperity and equity.
As a founding member of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Australia applauds the role it plays to promote sensible health policies and strengthen health systems at the country level.
WHO is one of the most regionalized specialised agencies, bringing it closer to the country level. In our region, the Asia Pacific, Australia has had a long and productive collaboration with the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office (WIPRO), working with it to address non-communicable diseases, emerging infectious diseases and pandemic preparedness. We have committed $160 million to address emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential including $100 million for initiatives for influenza and pandemic preparedness, in the Asia Pacific region.
In recent years we have increasingly taken a “whole of government” approach to formulating responses to major global policy challenges. Certainly the national foreign policy debate has been informed by developments such as the SARS crisis, the HIV/AIDS challenge and the threat of pandemic influenza. We are acutely aware that years of development growth can be undermined or even reversed by an epidemic or by a major challenge to national health systems.
Australia’s Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, is himself keenly engaged in ensuring Australia’s foreign policy appropriately recognizes and reflects this reality, and Australia’s Department of Health and Aging works in partnership with our development agency, AusAID, to ensure policy and technical coherence of international development health strategies.
When we met in September at the MDGs Summit, we all expressed grave concern in particular about the slow progress being made on reducing maternal mortality and improving women’s and children’s health. We also acknowledged that making progress on the health MDGs would be essential for making headway on the other Goals.
The Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health provided a crystallised view of the actions required to make real progress towards MDGs 4 and 5. In support of that strategy, Australia announced our plan to spend at least $1.6 billion on maternal and child health over the coming four years. We will increase our funding steadily so that it reaches more than $400 million annually by 2015.
Mr President,
Next September, we will meet here at the General Assembly to focus our attention on the challenge that non-communicable diseases (or NCDs) pose for developing countries.
We hope next year’s high-level meeting will emphasise the multi-sectoral actions required to address non-communicable diseases. These include ensuring trade and agricultural policies are supportive of the healthy lifestyles which prevent NCDs, and giving greater effect to existing commitments under the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control.
Australia is supporting our neighbours in the Pacific to address NCDs. We look forward to working with governments and development partners to further scale up successful approaches.
Finally, Mr President, I would like to mention HIV/AIDS and the importance of policy coherence in this field. It has long been recognised that a foreign policy lens must be applied to this issue, which is much more than just a health problem. This was demonstrated, for example, by the Security Council’s consideration in 2000 of HIV/AIDS as a peace and security issue.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a social, political, economic and cultural issue. It requires governments to understand the multiple drivers of their own epidemic and to develop the best local response. It also requires international commitment and consensus to share our knowledge, develop ‘best practice’ approaches, and generate funding to tackle the ongoing epidemic.
Australia is honoured to be co-facilitating with Botswana, the process leading up to the UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS to be held next June. That meeting comes at a critical juncture. For every 5 people newly-infected with HIV, only 2 have access to treatment. We need to do so much better.
We look forward to the international community coming together to assess our collective progress against the epidemic and agreeing what needs to be done to meet our common goals by 2015.
Australia itself has drawn on the success of our own domestic HIV/AIDS response to encourage progressive and evidence-based approaches in other countries, which are grounded in strong partnership between government and civil society. We understand the importance of the political, legal and policy environment to ensure those most-at-risk have access to services for HIV prevention, treatment and care.
For example, we have taken a leading role in supporting harm reduction approaches to prevent HIV infection among people who inject drugs. We have advocated for this approach with partner countries and through multiple UN channels, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. We have also helped partner countries demonstrate the effectiveness of harm reduction approaches in their own national settings.
Mr President,
Australia is convinced the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved, including in the poorest countries, with renewed commitment, effective implementation and intensified collective action by all Member States. It will be essential that we do this in partnership with a well-coordinated and coherent United Nations system. Recognising the importance of the health MDGs, we must continue to ensure these health challenges are high on the agenda of our policy-makers, including those focused on foreign policy objectives.
Thank you.