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Good afternoon,
The initiative we are announcing here today is
tremendously important and exciting. It will enable thousands of
health professionals and researchers to access information that is
vitally needed.
We are living in a world in which ill health is
contributing to poverty and deprivation among millions. More people
than ever before suffer and die from diseases that are easily
preventable or treatable. This happens because they are too poor to
protect themselves or to get the treatment they need.
At Summit meetings in Asia, Africa and the
Americas, leaders have committed to scaling up action to tackle
ill-health, particularly among the poorest. They call on public,
private and voluntary entities, as well as the UN system, to work
together and help make it happen..
Over the last two years we have seen a genuine
willingness - by governments, foundations, private entities and
community organizations - to increase the resources spent on global
health.
- Nearly a billion dollars have already been pledged for a Global
Health and AIDS Fund - before it has been created!
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Companies that manufacture essential
medicines and health commodities have made substantial reductions
in the prices they charge to poor country customers.
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New partnerships have been established to
develop vaccines against HIV infection, malaria and tuberculosis;
other partnerships are discovering and developing new and more
effective medications - particularly for malaria, tuberculosis and
diseases that affect poor people. Partnerships are focusing on
epilepsy, mental illness and disability; child health and safer
pregnancy; blood safety and health promotion; and the control of
tobacco.
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The public and private sectors have come
together to eradicate polio, with immense backing from Rotary
International. They are improving access to immunizations through
the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization with its
generous founding donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation.
It is vitally important that these partnerships
make good use of the scarce resources available to achieve better
health.
Those who plan, operate and monitor health systems
need to know what works, when and where, and how to make it happen.
Those who initiate research to develop new
medicines or vaccines need to know what is happening in their field.
They have started to make themselves heard. The SciELO project of the
Pan American Health Organization, is already publishing Latin American
and Caribbean biomedical journals on the Internet.
Today we see a real breakthrough in improving
access to such key information. It is an initiative by the six
publishers who are represented here today. It builds on initiatives
like the SciELO project.
As a result, people in nearly 100 developing
countries will be able to gain access to vital scientific information
that they otherwise could not afford.
Thousand of the world's leading medical and
scientific journals will become available through the Internet to
medical and nursing schools, universities and research institutions in
developing countries for free or at deeply-reduced rates.
Evidence to guide health policies and interventions
has been hard to access in many countries - until now.
Developing countries are trying to contribute to
global health research efforts. They have found it hard to access up
to date reports of progress elsewhere - until today.
This new initiative will help thousands of health
professionals, researchers and policy-makers to use the best-available
scientific evidence when contributing to better health for all within
the populations they serve.
It has enormous potential for reducing the gap in
access to health information between rich and poor countries.
It is an example of the forces of globalization
helping to promote equity.
Indeed, it will enable those who have knowledge to
communicate with an infinite variety of new people, to relate with
them, and to become more closely involved in their realities.
WHO is pleased to have been involved in this
process, and congratulates the six publishers on taking the
initiative.
Thank you. |
