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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
Remarks by Harriet C. Babbitt,
Global Health Council Conference
USAID Deputy Administrator
June 15, 2000
Thank you for that introduction, Dr. Foege. It's a pleasure to be here.
Before I begin let me also thank:
- Kul Gautam from UNICEF,
- Sir George Alleyne from the Pan American Health Organization,
- Charles MacCormick from Save the Children, and
- the Gates Foundation
-- all of who are valued partners in USAID's work around the world.
We rely on them -- and thousands upon thousands of grassroots organizations and host country government workers -- to help us achieve the goals set in New York almost ten years ago.
USAID unequivocally supports the goals of the World Summit for Children. We all agree that our children's health and well-being is important to development, because we know that healthy children are essential to long-term social and economic progress.
As Kul Gautaum has outlined, we've all made a lot of progress in the past 20 or so years:
- The mortality rate of children has dropped by about 20 per cent worldwide. The global literacy rate has doubled, and the percentage of people with access to clean water has tripled.
- Smallpox has been eradicated, and polio is set to follow.
- Our work has helped millions of children receive supplements and eat food that is rich in essential nutrients like vitamin A and iodine -- nutrients they need to become healthy adults.
USAID helped develop oral rehydration salts to fight diarrheal diseases and we helped teach healthcare workers to recognize and treat acute respiratory infections in the absence of doctors and x-rays.
In fact, we estimate that with our partners help our child survival programs save the lives of millions of children every year.
But improving the health of the world's children is not like building a bridge -- it's not a one-shot deal. It requires constant leadership, commitment, and a capacity to deliver.
We've made a lot of progress, but we need to do more:
- Over eight million children still die every year from malaria, vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, and respiratory and diarrheal diseases. Millions of children and their mothers still suffer from the effects of births that are too closely spaced.
- Malnutrition still threatens the lives of millions of children worldwide.
- And the AIDS epidemic is not only spreading to our children, but it is orphaning an entire generation: 12 million children have lost at least one parent so far.
In addition, the post-Cold War era has given rise to complex emergencies, conflict, and political upheaval -- all of which are characterized by massive displacement of women and children.
In parts of the world, women and children are used as instruments of war.
And all over the world, famines and natural disasters put children in extreme jeopardy, and threaten to erode the progress we have made in the past few decades.
Again, I say, we've made a lot of progress, but we need to do more.
Countries in Africa and South Asia have seen drops in their immunization rates. In some African countries, child death rates are actually on the rise because of decreasing availability or use of basic health care.
And AIDS is decimating entire populations.
In Africa, AIDS strikes men and women in their prime, killing off the very people best positioned to contribute to African society. It is wiping out nearly four decades of progress: children are forced to drop out of school to care for dying parents and businesses face rising labor costs and a shortage of skilled workers.
AIDS robs children not only of their parents, but also of the emotional and intellectual anchors in their lives: teachers, mentors, coaches, aunts and uncles.
If this continues, what kind of world will Africa's children inherit?
With the 10th anniversary of the World Summit Goals in sight, USAID is taking new actions to help children.
This year we launched two new initiatives: the LIFE Initiative, to strengthen the attack on AIDS in Africa and to allow us to better respond to children affected by AIDS, and the BOOST Immunization initiative, to provide more resources to improve immunization rates in selected countries.
But as government leaders and policy-makers, as development professionals, we must put the challenges of AIDS, measles, malaria and other diseases in the development context:
Our efforts over the next few decades cannot and should not focus on medical treatment and prevention alone.
Last year USAID launched the Global Alliance for Vitamin A. This partnership with UNICEF, Canada, and other major donors as well as food and pharmaceutical companies, will help eliminate vitamin A deficiency.
Immunizations and public health campaigns are critical, but they are not enough.
We know that no matter how much money USAID, or the EU, or the World Bank, or the Gates Foundation pour into health care, ultimately the key to well-being rests with the citizens of developing countries themselves, and their willingness and ability to create the institutions that can address this issue.
Political reform which gives people a greater voice and strengthens the governance within a country helps ensure health is a priority and is effectively addressed. At the same time, economic reforms which better integrate a country into the global market create the resources to address health needs.
I ask you to think about how this country fights public health threats: community groups, non-profits, public education campaigns, and the media help educate people about diseases, and help spread the message of prevention. Public health messages are broadcast on TV and radio. News of new research and treatment options is spread through medical journals and conferences. And doctors counsel patients one-to-one, answering questions patients may have.
Americans rely on these systems to work when it comes to any threat to our well-being.
In developing countries, people too often cannot rely on any of these institutions. Civil society is still in its early stages, while governments often lack the resources, the will, or the capacity to mount public education campaigns.
Perhaps most importantly, people often do not have access to educated health care workers or competent care.
The average education level for health care workers in Zambezia, a province of Mozambique, is the sixth grade.
In Bolivia, there is only one doctor for every 4,000 people.
If we want developing countries to someday be able to deal with health crises on their own, we must help them --not only by continuing to provide prevention and treatment assistance, but by helping them educate medical workers, build up their civil societies, and create functioning health care delivery systems.
These goals are not separate from those established at the World Summit on Children.
Universal access to basic education, clean drinking water, reproductive health services, permanent reductions in child and maternal mortality -- the institutions we build today will help make these goals a reality tomorrow.
And I am optimistic about tomorrow.
If we have learned anything from the 20th century, it is this: that when the international community comes together to work for one cause -- be it the Green Revolution in India or the eradication of smallpox and soon, polio -- we can succeed.
Who knows what battles we will win in the 21st century? I recently learned that researchers have developed a new kind of rice that has a high beta-carotene content with the potential to greatly reduce Vitamin A deficiency around the world -- especially in that half of the world where rice is a staple food.
Let me say one last thing.
In order for USAID to take part in those upcoming battles -- and we will -- USAID will need resources.
This summer, Congress will vote on the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, which includes funding for USAID.
We welcome the commitment Congress has made to our child and reproductive health programs. But funding for our other programs is once again in jeopardy this year -- especially for those programs that help create the institutions that will sustain progress toward the Summit goals.
In a time of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity, I believe the United States can do more, should do more, and must do more to help bring the developing world into the 21st century.
Today, we are dead last among the industrialized world in the proportion of our wealth that we spend on foreign assistance programs.
If we want to help the world's children, this must change.
With your help, I know it will.
Thank you.
This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
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Last Updated on: July 12, 2001 |
