NAM Members Urged To Cooperate To Tackle Public Health Problems

Geneva, May 21, IRNA -- Minister of Health and Medical Education of the Islamic Republic of Iran Dr. Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi urged NAM members to cooperate in order to tackle public health problems. Addressing the 7th Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Ministers of Health in Geneva on Tuesday, Dr. Ghazizadeh Hashemi highlighted the most important problems faced by the world in the field of public health and called for international collaboration to solve these problems. The following is the full text of the ministerˈs speech in the meeting: Honorable Director General and Health Ministers Distinguished Delegates Ladies and Gentlemen It is great honor to me to be here at the 7th meeting of NAM health Ministers. I’m of the firm belief that our gathering today would provide an ample opportunity to share experiences and exchange views on the most important challenging issues affecting global health. We, as the largest group of the United Nations, have always played a constructive role through the UN relevant bodies including in particular through WHO in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change, one of the greatest challenges to human health in this century. Various trends in the world affect the public health that needs collective action. climate change, severe new viruses, setbacks in areas like polio eradication, the drugs that don’t work anymore under antimicrobial drug resistance, trade and investment agreements that severely impact on affordable access to public health services, air pollution, cancer and other NCDs, poverty and inequality in access to health services are among the Global Health Challenges that mainly targeted the developing countries. These are serious threats not only to development of member states, but also a great challenge to the basic rights of our people, which is the fundamental right to live as recognized in the Charter of United Nations. It is almost obvious that no single country now by its own efforts could overcome these challenges. To this end, the NAM health meetings is the principal platform representing the developing countries in health multilateral fora; to express our views as well as concerns about the most challenging issues with regard to health and the environment, and explore ways and means to redress our common concern. The Non-Aligned Movement has a rainbow of diverse countries that can share experiences and strengthen their health systems through mutual collaboration and conducting common tasks, including tackling climate change. The role of NAM member states in Global Health agenda moves far beyond the current functions of regional and sub-regional entities. While a few member states are still struggling to meet some ambitious targets of MDGs, others are moving beyond expected goals and are getting prepared for the challenges of post MDG era. Such an uneven status prompts NAM members to create a more coordinated platform to collaborate in tackling the most important challenging issues of current global health, namely universal health coverage, social determinants of health, adverse effects of climate change, emerging and re-emerging communicable diseases, developing new medicines, NCDs and behavioral changes, among others, in order to bring better health for our populations. I do sincerely hope that in line with the longstanding strong commitment of the NAM, our gathering today will contribute to overcome challenges, pave the way to further our cooperation in harmonized and integrated manner to deal with global health challenges./end