03 June 2016 - The Philippines addressed the 69th World Health Assembly (WHA) - the world’s largest gathering of leaders in health policy, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva Switzerland. The WHA is thehighest public health policy-setting body, where the ministries of health from the 194 member states discuss, debate, and agree on pressing health issues.
The theme of this year’s WHA is “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, signaling the shift in gears from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – setting a more inclusive agenda for development over the next fifteen years from 2015 to 2030. While the MDG are viewed as successful, there remains an “unfinished agenda” which the SDGs, broader in scope and more ambitious in its goals, addresses. The 17 goals and 169 targets cut across the three pillars of the United Nations agenda – peace and security, human rights and development – and integrate the three dimensions of development, economic, environmental and social, in the agenda.
“Agenda 2030 is a broad universal policy agenda, and the Philippines is ready to do its part,” declares Permanent Representative of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Ambassador Cecilia Rebong, who delivered the Philippine statement on behalf of Secretary Janette Loreto Garin.
“The Philippines believes that health is one of the cornerstones of sustainable development. Healthy individuals and communities are indispensable in the attainment of SDGs,” she added.
“Integrated and indivisible, no single sustainable development goal stands apart. While the focus of SDG 3 is Health, ending poverty, hunger, striving toward equality, sustainable cities, clean air and water, climate action, all of these contribute to the better health outcomes and vice versa. There are no silos in the Post 2015 framework. Thus the Health Ministry should not stand alone in implementing its public health agenda.”
The Philippines elaborated its experience in health system strengthening by implementing system-wide health reforms for ensuring equity, in implementing elements of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control with the Sin Tax Reform Law, and progress made with the implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law. These measures help advance public health thrusts, improving access to quality health services, and contribute to the attainment of health-related SDGs, as well to provide financial risk protection from health expenditures.
The 69th WHA convenes after a milestone year. In 2015, several historic international agreements such as the Addis Ababa Action Agenda for Financing for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, all have significant impact on the pursuit of the global health agenda. Together, they make the 69th WHA an opportune venue for the health community to solidify its role towards implementing these agreements. Moreover, the WHA comes as the WHO is in the thick of refining its emergency response reform, in the wake of Ebola, and as the battle with the Zika virus outbreak dominates the headlines, along with the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance and the emergence of a post-antibiotic world, and pandemic levels of preventable non-communicable diseases such as cancer, obesity and diabetes.
The World Health Assembly runs from May 23 to 28. The Philippines will take part in the 6-day meetings and will lead discussions on climate change and health, dengue and NCDs in three side events at the Assembly. END