Address at the high-level dialogue on maximizing positive synergies between health systems and global health initiatives.
Venice, Italy
22 June 2009
Dr Margaret Chan
Director-General of the World Health Organization
Honourable Mayor of Venice, honourable President of the Veneto Region, honourable ministers, colleagues from the United Nations system, representatives of global health initiatives, researchers and academics, civil society, ladies and gentlemen,
First, let me thank the city of Venice for hosting this event, and thank the government of Italy for its support .Let me thank the many contributors from around the world who have so generously given their time, their findings, and their thoughtful insights.
I think we can now let a long-standing and divisive debate die down. This is the debate that pits single-disease initiatives against the agenda for strengthening health systems.
As I have stated since taking office, the two approaches are not mutually exclusive. They are not in conflict. They do not represent a set of either-or options. It is the opposite. They can and should be mutually reinforcing. We need both.
This is one of the jobs, I believe, of this high-level dialogue: to craft policies and best practice that help the two approaches work together, in harmony, in ways that reduce waste and duplication, and improve efficiency.
We need them to work together to facilitate what I believe we all agree is the most important goal: to save lives and improve health outcomes. The Positive Synergies report has its limitations, which the co-authors readily admit. But it does give us the most solid ground yet for taking stock of where we stand today and establishing informed policies for the future.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Global health initiatives were established with a strong sense of purpose and great ambition. They set out to save lives, on an emergency basis, even though not everything was known at the start about everything that needed to be done, or the best way to do it.
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