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SDGs to be at the centre of upcoming WHA

Xinhua, May 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Speaking ahead of this year's World Health Assembly (WHA), World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan stressed Tuesday the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in light of economic, social and environmental imperatives.

"It is good that global health is taking such a prominent position especially in the context of the sustainable development agenda," she told press before next week's 69th WHA in Geneva.

"The 17 SDGs and the 169 broad targets, are ambitious and it is a very important agenda because it is relevant to all people in all countries so that nobody is left behind," she added.

The biggest to date, the assembly will determine policies on a broad range of high-priority health issues, from maternal and child nutrition, universal health coverage to health emergencies.

In light of WHO's response to the Ebola crisis, which saw over 11,000 people die in West Africa, Chan underlined the importance of implementing a new health emergencies program to better respond to future large-scale and sustained outbreaks.

According to WHO, the start-up costs and additional core, recurring costs for the new program will require an additional 160 million U.S. dollars during the 2016-17 biennium and 150 million dollars per year in 2018 and 2019.

Institutionalizing defined International Health Regulations (IHRs) on a local and national level is also considered a must if countries are to tackle head-on complex health issues.

"Members states learned from Ebola, and they would like WHO to move from a normative organisation to an operational organisation, but not an implementing agency," she explained.

Against the backdrop of the current Zika pandemic affecting 59 countries and thousands of people across the world, this is especially relevant as countries struggle to grapple with a disease which is becoming increasingly concerning from a global health standpoint.

"WHO has repeatedly, after major health emergencies such as the H1N1 pandemic and Ebola, told member states, the world is unprepared. So many countries lack basic IHR core capacities, to prevent, detect and respond," she warned.

The new program, whose budget shall be discussed next week, will strive to ensure that countries provide support not only to WHO but also to states with weak health systems.

This year's WHA, to be attended by around 3,500 people, will take place from May 23 to May 28. Some 21 resolutions are expected to be discussed by the organisation's 194 member states. Endit