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News/Event Item
WHO's Chan Addresses Financial Crisis' Global Health Impact
Nov. 13, 2008
On Wednesday, November 12, 2008, World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan released a statement calling on governments not to repeat past mistakes and instead counter the current economic and fiscal crisis by bolstering global health and other social sector investments. According to Chan, many countries continue to suffer from decisions to shift budgets away from social investments such as health and education during an economic crisis in the late 1970s. For example, a lack of investment in sub-Saharan African health systems in the 1980s led the region to be "tragically unprepared" for the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the following decade, Chan said.
Although Chan said that it is unclear how the financial crisis will affect developing countries, she issued clear reasons for the necessity of increasing government investments in global health: - It protects the poor in times of crisis;
- It promotes economic recovery by investing in human capital;
- It promotes social stability by maintaining healthy, productive and stable populations;
- It provides the most efficient and affordable means to cover health costs; and
- It builds security by maintaining essential surveillance and response capacity to pandemic threats.
Chan's full statement is available on WHO's Web site:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2008/s12/en/index.html
category: Global Health Council News : General Health News
contributed by Liza Nanni on 3 September 2008
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