Monday 21st, MAY 2007

Committee A (Morning)


Item 12.1 (continued) – Avian and pandemic influenza

Draft resolution has been adopted.

Item 12.10 (continued) – Working towards universal coverage of maternal, newborn and child health interventions: biennial report

Analysis of family planning services in low-income areas or countries indicates a lack of progress in their use. In many countries, particularly in Africa, fertility rates, population growth and unmet needs for family planning remain high. Continued high fertility rates and the demographic consequences of increasing numbers of births complicate attempts to improve health. Major gaps remain in the coverage of post-partum care; in some countries as many as 80% of women who give birth at home receive no such care. The urgent need for action to improve maternal, newborn and child health is commanding increased attention among other organizations in the United Nations system and partners and in global forums in general. The recommendation by the United Nations Secretary-General to the General Assembly at its sixtyfirst session, in September 2006,2 “to achieve universal access to reproductive health by 2015” as a new target under Millennium Development Goal 5 should also stimulate improvement in the rates of coverage.

Secretariat: collaboration with World Bank, UNICEF and NGO’s… is needed; A lot of progress has been achieved but it is not enough…

Item 12.5 (continued) – Malaria, including proposal for establishment of Malaria Day

Draft resolution has been adopted.

Item 12.6 (continued) – Tuberculosis control: progress and long-term planning

Draft resolution has been adopted.

Item 12.11 – Health promotion in a globalized world

Health promotion is a cornerstone of primary health care and a core function of public health.
Its value is increasingly recognized; it is both effective and cost-effective in reducing the burden of disease and in mitigating the social and economic impact of diseases. The links between health promotion, health, and human and economic development are widely acknowledged.
The Bangkok Charter confirms the need to focus on use of health promotion to address the determinants of health and identify action. Its four key commitments are to make promotion of health:
• Central to the global development agenda: strong intergovernmental agreements that improve health and collective health security and effective mechanisms for global governance for health are needed;
• A core responsibility for government as a whole: the determinants of health need to be addressed by all ministries at all levels of government;
• A key focus of communities and civil society: well-organized and empowered communities are highly effective in determining their own health, and are capable of encouraging governments and the private sector to be accountable for the health consequences of their policies and practices;
• A requirement for good corporate practice: the private sector has a responsibility to ensure health and safety in the workplace and to promote the health and well-being of employees, their families and communities, and to contribute to lessening wider impacts on global health

Germany underlined the great problem with the new migrations and their sanitary stakes. To reduce the disparities allows improving health conditions.
Cuba: Wish to enhance the collaboration with Medias - Modify the behavior to reduce the risks
Trinidad and Tobago: Prevention is one thing, but we don’t have to forget the “health consciousness”. Communication and Information will play a great role
Morocco: intellectual flexibility was not guaranteed, as promised in Doha. Innovation must not lead to monopoly. North-South cooperation is vital.
Ghana underlined the lack of financing the promotion of healthy environments and its promotion in the draft resolution.

Committe B (morning)

Item 12.20 on Public health, innovation and intellectual property was discussed as the general debate continued. The central points made by member states were to define clear objectives for R&D, for the secretariat to facilitate regional meetings, to translate the matrix draft (African region), to increase collaboration through the creation of an on going forum, the consultation and the elaboration of the document on intellectual property, and to facilitate access to medical support (Russia), making sure that the important resolutions are more clear and prioritized, to ensure access to necessary drugs in developing countries (China), finding ways and means to render the public health more accessible (Iran), finding ways to lower the prices of the medicines (Vietnam, Thailand). The NGOs, the FPMA and the MCM, that made statement during the meeting emphasized on the need of the IGWG to base itself on precise factual information in order to avoid mistakes and to license pattern pools to permit more affordable prices, try to convince the developers of the second generation of drugs. The doctors’ conclusions on the issues were:
_The working texts will be provided in July and will address the concerns formulated above as there was a high interest of the member states on the issue.
_As soon as the document will be provided the discussion will be more fruitful.
_There is a need to expand the pool of experts. 15 states have already contributed in proposing 42 experts.
Concerning the draft resolution A60/B/conf.paper no.3 Rev1, many member states expressed their gratitude to the director general’s support over the issue. Some amendments were proposed by Brazil who wished to add two paragraphs at the end of the preamble but the European Union showed her preoccupation towards these amendments and wished to know what would be the process followed by the WHO in this sense. Canada showed its anxiety to see the resolution narrow the IGWG work. The Chairman said that a redaction group would be in charge of this matter.

Item 12.19 Health technologies and the resolution EB120.R21. The Executive Board recommends the adoption of the resolution. An overall support to the resolution was stated by the member states. The need to reinforce the directives, to prevent the misuse of technical devices, to strengthen the WHO capacities in this area, and the necessity for equity were expressed. Five amendments to the resolution were proposed and the secretariat will take those into account by the 22nd of May. Hopefully the resolution will be adopted tomorrow.

Item 12.18 concerning Better medicines for children and the resolution EB120.R13 discussed during the last 30 minutes of the meeting. Russia stated that paediatric practice needs an extended number of medicines adapted to the children and under different forms.
Brazil wanted to assure more guarantees over the issue with the TRIPs work, but the United States of America expressed their desire for a moderated and measured approach for this complex problem, they prefer the word “promotion” to “guarantee”.



Technical Briefing – “WHO global action plan against Cancer”:

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. From a total of 58 millions death worldwide in 2005, cancer accounts for 7.6 million (or 13%) of all deaths.
More than 70% of all cancer deaths in 2005 occurred in low and middle income countries. Deaths from cancer in the world are projected to continue rising, with an estimated 9 million people dying from cancer in 2015 and 11.4 million dying in 2030.
40% of cancer can be prevented (by a healthy diet, physically activity and not using tobacco). Another third of the cancer burden could be cured if detected early and treated adequately. For all remaining cancers, palliative care can improve quality of life.

WHO has adopted a global approach: “Prevent, cure, care, and manage for success”.
It is very important to access to healthy environments and the member states have to create nation plan action against the cancer.




COMMITTEE A (Afternoon)
Item 12 Technical health matters

Item 12.12
Integrating gender analysis and actions into the work of WHO
The majority of the member states welcomed the integration of gender analysis and actions in the work of WHO. They also thanked the Secretariat for its work and the quality of its report.
However, various states proposed amendments to the draft strategy. The Distinguished Delegate of Thailand proposed to include the "study" as a determining factor of gender inequality. The D.D. of Sweden proposed to replace "gender family health care" in paragraph 2.4 by "agenda equality perspective"; to replace "too" in paragraph 2.6 by "as providers of" and to add after "publication" on paragraph 3.5: "including relevant documentation presented to the Executive Board and the World Health Assembly". The D.D. of Switzerland also proposed some changes (§2.1, §2.4, §3.4).
The D.D. of Japan expressed the viewpoint of his country concerning the need to take into consideration the cultural background of each country in the implementation of the strategy. He also insisted on the necessary quality of indicators in that sensitive field. The D.D. of South Africa insisted on the establishment of strong capacity-building partnerships and a share of skills in monitoring and evaluation of the strategy's implementation.
The Chairman proposed that the Secretariat would provide a new draft resolution that includes the amendments proposed so that the whole assembly would have access to the new version as a work basis.

Item 12.13
Workers' health: draft global plan of action
Once again, the delegations warmly welcomed the report proposed by the Secretariat.
The D.D. of Germany, on behalf of the European Union emphasized the benefits of ILO/WHO cooperation, particularly in the field of workers' health. He also proposed two friendly amendments.
Some delegations proposed to remove or add some expressions in the draft resolution: Philippines, Thailand, The Sultanate of Oman, Cameroun, the Russian Federation, Greece and Kenya.
The D.D. of Portugal after having stressed the alignment of his delegation on the E.U. statement, highlighted the particular situation of migrant workers and the effect of their working conditions on their health.
On behalf of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Liban, the D.D. of the Sultanate of Oman proposed to add in the 2007-2013 Action Plan the expression "travaillleurs sous contrats" as those Gulf countries have in common that category to distinguish the migrant.
As for the previous item, the Secretariat will provide a new draft document that will include the proposed amendements.

Item 12.14
Health systems: emergency-care systems
This item was only introduced explaining the choice of the expression "emergency-care systems" as an expression covering a wider scope than "emergency-care" alone. There was no time left to keep the discussions on that item and the meeting was adjourned.




Committee B (afternoon)

This seventh meeting of the Committee B was essentially a discussion to follow up past resolutions on technical and health matters.
Before beginning the review, item 12.20 on public health (innovation and intellectual property) after amendment has been adopted.

Item 12.21 Technical and health matters: Progress reports

G. sustaining the elimination of iodine deficiency disorders (resolution WHA 58.22)
Peru took the floor to underline the importance of the issue. Reaffirming that a lack of iodine in alimentation causes serious health damages such as brain disturbance, vision impairment….
A special care should be given to pregnant women who are particularly vulnerable and also because the baby can also greatly suffer from a low iodine alimentation.
Iran emphasizes the need the build up national capacities but also insisted on institutional cooperation between the WHO and relevant partner organizations.
The Canadian delegation found, that the key was the systemic distribution of iodized salt to needed population.

A. Improving the containment of antimicrobial resistance (resolution WHA58.27)

Denmark insisted on the information need and the elaboration of a global response to this issue.
Iran sees this issue of medicine ineffectiveness as a health system issue. Many medicines are not properly used and too often are given without precautions.

B. Implementation by WHO of the recommendation of the Global Task Team on improving AIDS Coordination among multilateral institutions and international donors. (Resolutions WHA59.12)

The South African delegation said it was important to make “money work”, in other words we need effective cooperation and follow up of the aid. There is also a need for more experience sharing among countries and institutions. This is important to have a better global understanding but then apply local skills and approaches.
The ICRC says that the battle of AIDS should be tackled at the community level.

C. World report on violence and health implementation of recommendations

The Jordanian delegation underlines the scourge of violence, which seems to be universal and part of the human condition. The delegation ask for money resources on that particular issue, that is sometimes forgotten, as it not a ‘diseases’ but which can cause serious physical and mental sufferings.
Norway recommended a more close work with the UNICEF concerning the issue of children and violence.

D. Promotion of road safety (resolution WHA57.10)

E. Disability, including prevention (resolution WHA58.23)

Angola reaffirmed the need to tackle this issue, which is another source of discrimination between rich and poor countries. Disability is tightly linked for poverty and other development issues. There is also a need in developing countries for better information data on disability. Resources mobilization should be a priority!

F. Cancer prevention and control (resolution WHA58.22)

Uganda reaffirmed the need to universal access to prevention an control. But also the importance of cancer research on diagnostic.
Bahrain on behalf of the Eastern Mediterranean countries says that some countries were left apart. Knowledge and experience should be made available for any country.
An effective control and prevention is particularly needed for breast cancer.

H. Strengthening active and healthy ageing

I Emergency preparedness and response (resolution WHA59.22)

Congo insisted on the importance of emergency health. It can be because of a natural disaster or as the result of an armed conflict, which has dramatic consequences for civilians, creating internally displaced persons (IDP) or refugees in other countries.

Botswana said that this issue was to be underlined in the perspective of the development agenda and that a sector approach was needed.