By Martin Banks - 18th May 2009
Most countries, including EU member states, are unlikely to meet the millennium development goals (MDGs), the world health assembly in Geneva has been told.
The United Nations MDGs - eight goals to be achieved by 2015 aimed at reducing or eliminating world poverty - result from the millennium declaration adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of state and government in September 2000.
However, the annual assembly in Switzerland was told that the economic downturn means most, if not all, nations are likely to fail to meet the deadline for implementing them.
Speaking at the opening of the annual conference, attended by health ministers, medical experts and NGOs from around the world, senior UN official Sergei Ordzhonikidze said he "regretted" that most nations - including European nations - were "not on track" to meeting the 2015 deadline.
"There has been, so far, too little progress on this issue and this, clearly, is a matter of real concern," said Ordzhonikidze, who is director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Geneva.
His comments were echoed by Dr Leslie Ramsammy, outgoing president of the assembly, who urged all countries to "intensify" their efforts to meet the MDGs within the specified timeframe.
Ramsammy, health minister in Guyana, said, "We are supposed to be on the final lap in terms of meeting the MDGs but many people remain pessimistic that they will be achieved. Indeed, some think we are on the brink of failure.
"It is true that the barriers are many and that attaining the MDGs may appear to be overwhelming. But I still think it can be done but in order to do so member states need to put this issue higher up their political agenda."
Further comment came from Pierre-Francois Unger, a senior Swiss health official, who told the gathering that the WHO had "learned its lessons" from the Sars crisis in 2003 and was now "better placed" to respond to the outbreak of the swine fever virus, the issue which will dominate the conference.
He said, "The lessons we learned from Sars is that we must act together in tackling global health problems such as the one we are confronted with at present."
The meeting has attracted a record 3000 participants from nearly 200 countries worldwide.
The WHO has played a key role in fighting disease around the globe for more than 50 years but rarely has it been the focus of such sustained media and public attention than in recent weeks.
The outbreak of the deadly swine fever virus has seen the WHO come under the spotlight like never before. Its scientists, doctors and officials are at the forefront of what is now a global battle against the virus.
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