Berlin
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Discours prononcé en anglais. Texte original, non traduit.
Minister,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to address a few words to such a diverse and distinguished audience.
At this year’s summit, Switzerland has the honour of assuming the presidency in the person of Antoine Flahault, Professor at the Institute of Global Health of the University of Geneva.
As a member of the M8 Alliance, the University of Geneva is the academic component in the unique setting of “International Geneva”. The city is home to several major global health actors.
All these actors are now being called upon to work together to achieve the ambitious goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
This task includes tackling today’s and tomorrow’s global health challenges.
Indeed, joint action is ever more important to ensure that healthcare provision becomes, or remains:
accessible
acceptable
appropriate
and affordable
as defined by the World Health Organisation in the Right to Health.
I believe three challenges put our global and our national public health systems to the test:
The first challenge is antimicrobial resistance or AMR:
What contributes to resistance?
80% of antibiotics are given to healthy livestock or to people who do not need them.
Only 20% of antibiotics are used appropriately to cure illnesses.
Deaths due to AMR are estimated at 700,000 a year.
U.S. data reveals that treating a patient with resistant strains creates 10,000 dollars of excess costs per patient.
This equals 20 billion dollars per year.
Current general trends show rapidly increasing figures.
We need to act now!
AMR is clearly not just a financial issue. Above all, it is a question of health.
Do we really want to revert to a pre-penicillin era? A time when simple infections were life threatening?
The second global health challenge is non-communicable diseases.
Changing lifestyles in societies worldwide have led to a drastic increase in NCDs.
In Switzerland, 80% of our health costs are attributable to NCDs.
NCDs are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in my country.
Our recently approved national strategy plans to promote preventative measures and increase health competence among the entire population.
As we all know, the underlying factors for NCDs often lie outside the health policy sector.
Therefore, we need to work with other ministries to develop effective strategies.
The World Health Organisation’s Action Plans provide important guidance in addressing the determinants of health.
The third challenge is that of changing demographics, and our ageing societies.
As populations live longer, there will inevitably be an increase in chronic diseases. This places additional strain on our health systems.
In the interests of all, we need to make sure that if we are to live longer, we need to live longer in better health.
The World Health Assembly adopted a Global Strategy and Action Plan on Ageing and Health last May. This Plan will guide us in our policy choices.
Switzerland is addressing these issues:
Firstly, by increasing the number of medical and nursing graduates, in line with the “WHO Code of practice on the international recruitment of health personnel”;
Secondly, by introducing a number of measures to better support relatives who provide care and nursing.
With an ageing population, dementia is a rapidly growing global health challenge,
with 11 million new cases per year,
or one new case every 3 seconds.
Today 47 million people are affected by this illness. This number is predicted to almost double by 2030 and nearly triple by 2050.
Switzerland is looking forward to discussing the WHO Global Action Plan on Dementia, which all countries will adopt at the next World Health Assembly in May.
The focus should lie on the needs of dementia patients and the people who care for them. We also must stop stigmatizing this illness in order to focus on care, and find a cure.
Ladies and gentlemen
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development gives us a comprehensive reference framework for addressing these challenges.
Allow me to highlight three key aspects of this newly endorsed framework:
First: all goals and targets on the 2030 Agenda are universal. All countries bear a shared responsibility.
Second: we need concerted and collaborative action.
It is only when policy makers, academics, researchers, private industry and civil society work together that we can make substantial progress.
The World Health Summit of Berlin is an example of an event that brings together a diverse audience.
Third: we need collaborative approaches across sectors.
Health is no longer the sole duty of health ministries and specialized health organisations.
All agencies need to embrace the spirit of collaboration and shared responsibility. Our combined efforts can achieve more than the sum of our individual efforts.
Governments are not always especially innovative, or active in cross-sectoral cooperation. However, we are learning.
Let me give you one example:
Four Swiss Ministries combined their efforts to ensure a comprehensive one-health approach to create a joint strategy against antimicrobial resistance.
This strategy goes hand in hand with the Global Action Plan on AMR endorsed by the World Health Assembly one year ago. We are confident that our joint efforts will generate the expected results.
Ladies and gentlemen
The mandate of the 2030 Agenda requires clear, effective contributions from all stakeholders, not just from governments.
Civil society organisations (CSOs) were very vocal in the consultation process. Now they are a key component with regard to implementation.
In my opinion, CSOs are often uniquely positioned to contribute to the achievement of the Agenda.
Let me highlight this further:
First, they are very flexible. They can make a significant contribution to practical operations, because they have in-depth on-the-ground experience, which helps bring concrete results.
During the Ebola outbreak, Médecins Sans Frontiers was on the ground from the beginning. They worked with local community-based organisations, and led the response to the crisis, while the international community was still preparing its response.
Second, non-state actors, particularly corporate philanthropists, look for new solutions in unconventional ways.
Their capacity for innovation and willingness to take risks makes them important players in multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Switzerland is supporting a number of product development partnerships with a view to accelerating cost-effective solutions. These include urgently needed medical products for neglected diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness.
Medicines for Malaria Venture helps develop urgently needed medical products for Malaria. The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics does the same for sleeping sickness.
The key to implementing the 2030 Agenda lies in using all the combined resources – innovation, scientific and technical expertise, and experience on the ground. As governments, we have a keen interest in supporting such partnerships and working with them.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Agreeing on an ambitious agenda for sustainable development is an achievement in itself.
However, it is but a start.
The effective implementation of the 2030 Agenda at global, regional, national, and State levels will determine our success in addressing global health challenges.
I am confident that the conversations here in Berlin will significantly contribute to advancing our common endeavours.
I wish you all productive discussions.
Thank you.