WUNRN
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The 63rd Annual United Nations DPI/NGO Conference, held in Melbourne, Australia from 30 August to 1 September, concluded with the NGO Declaration “Advance Global Health: Achieve the MDGs.” The Declaration, supported by 1,600 participants representing over 350 NGOs from more than 70 countries, underlines that “it is unacceptable that so many children and adults in low income countries continue to suffer preventable illness, disability and premature deaths each year.”
The Declaration recognizes the relationship between the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), health challenges and human rights. It notes that billions of people around the world still lack access to adequate and appropriate food; to improved sanitation; and to safe drinking water. It underscores that almost 9 million children die before the age of five; while several hundred thousands of women continue to die each year of pregnancy-related causes. These are just a few examples in the Declaration, which also notes that many more people (i) die of insufficient access to health care, health care professionals, and medicines or of non-communicable diseases; or (ii) face discrimination and poverty as a result of their disabilities.
Therefore, the Declaration calls upon governments, UN agencies, corporations and individuals to deliver on their human rights obligations, and to provide adequate financial resources and political will to achieve the MDGs. They should ensure that national health and nutrition plans prioritize integrated and evidence-based health promotion, illness prevention and treatment services for all people; and actively support, encourage and resource community voices – representing women and men, children, youth and older persons, indigenous peoples, the disabled and marginalized groups – in programme planning, implementation and evaluation.
Further, the formation and strengthening of national health systems should be prioritized in order to deliver sustainable and equitable health improvements and governments should respect and implement existing international covenants and agreements that advance global health. Also more efforts should be directed towards ensuring gender equality, empowering women and ending violence against women.
To overcame the brain drain in the health sector in developing countries, the Declaration calls for changing existing international financial and trade systems in order to create more equal opportunities for health workers in resource poor countries. It also recommends the donor community to cut military expenditures, which will free up resources that can be used for the training and retraining health workers, teachers, and infrastructure.
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http://www.pfcmc.com/News/Press/docs/2010/ngo708.doc.htm
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Department
of Public Information • News and Media Division • |
Millennium Development Goals
Moral Imperative, but Largely Off-track for Poorest,
Least Politically Powerful
People, Says Declaration at DPI/NGO Conference
Achieving Millennium Development Goals Would Cost Less
Than One Tenth of Annual Global Military Spending, Round Table Told
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http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1009/S00006/sexual-and-reproductive-health-omission-disappoint.htm
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Family
Planning International hosts the Secretariat of the New Zealand
Parliamentarians' Group on Population and Development (NZPPD). http://www.fpi.org.nz/ParliamentaryGroup.aspx
Sexual and Reproductive Health Omission in Declaration: “Disappointing”
A crucial UN Declaration released today at the UN DPI / NGO Conference “Advance global health – achieve the MDGs”, held in Melbourne, received support from NGO groups but for many the Declaration overlooked the priority issue of access to sexual and reproductive health which is vital to achieving not only MDG 5 but all the MDGs.....
Full Article: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE1009/S00006/sexual-and-reproductive-health-omission-disappoint.htm