8/14/2019 Statement by Mr. Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations Department of Economic and Socia

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United Nations ECOSOC Annual Ministerial Review Regional Ministerial Meeting for Africa

Statement by Mr. Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Accra, Ghana

10 -11 June 2009

Honourable Vice President, Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to join Ambassador Lucas in congratulating the Government ofGhana for hosting this Regional Preparatory Meeting for the ECOSOC AnnualMinisterial Review (AMR) in July in Geneva. I would also like to thank the people ofGhana for their wann hospitality.I would also like to thank on behalf of the Department ofEconomic and SocialAffairs the generous support extended by the Governments of Italy and Luxemburg to theorganization of this meeting.

Ladies and Gentlemen,Africa as a whole is off track to meeting the MDGs on reducing child mortality,improving maternal health and combating infectious disease (MDGs 4, 5 and 6). Yet,experiences from other continents, as well as recent progress in several countries in theregion, prove that the Goals can be achieved across Africa.The global health landscape is unrecognizable from even a decade ago. While theMDGs have revitalized interest in global health issues, we see an influx of newinnovative structures, networks, partnerships and alliances beyond traditional health anddevelopment models. Managing the risks and rewards of both technological convergenceand the convergence of health and development is increasingly the critical challengefacing all stakeholders.An unparalleled opportunity exists for governments, donors, foundations,business, international organizations and civil society to act now and as one to craftcoherent and concerted health policies. The perennial ills of the health sector - includingcomplex planning environments, sector silos, costly inefficiencies, and risk avoidance must be addressed. And across the board, new thinking should stimulate using exist ingand emerging technology the traditional assumptions and models of public health.

8/14/2019 Statement by Mr. Thomas Stelzer, Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations Department of Economic and Socia

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Today, there are three major stresses on global public health that can and must beaddressed: healthcare systems in general are too focused on acute care and late-stagedisease; healthcare is prohibitively expensive and difficult to obtain in most developingeconomies; and the world's population is aging significantly, which is already puttingmounting economic strain on governments, insurers, taxpayers, and caregivers. ForAfrica, these challenges are further compounded by the lack of infrastructure, heavydise.(lSe burden and brain drain manifested in the emigration of health workers. Thismeeting is meant to look at the use of new technologies to address these complexities.

While these challenges need to be addressed in a comprehensive manner, ehealthprovides one of the ways to overcome these shortcomings. The great interest in eHealthcan be explained by the fact that it can help scale healthcare appropriately to eacheconomy and also enable a transformation from disease management to a focus onproactive wellness.

We see e-Health as the use of information and communication technology (ICT)to drive improvement in the safety, quality and efficiency of the healthcare system. Itprovides an effective tool for enabling people to access health services and at the sametime raise awareness. We held a regional meeting in China as part of the AMR discussionon health literacy and eHealth was one of the tools discussed to raise the level of healthliteracy. It can be also used as a potential tool to disseminate key messages in outbreaks.

There have been efforts to promote the use of ICTs for improving healthoutcomes. We are pleased to announce that the UN Department ofEconomic and SocialAffairs (UN-DESA), in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) havetaken an initiative to demonstrate the potential of eHealth. We are organizing two pilot"Texting4Health" campaigns. The first one is being launched in Uganda in the Jinjaregion on 17 June and will run for ten days. We are also organizing this campaign inAccra, Ghana in the near future. The objective is to draw attention to the enormousuntapped potential of M-health worldwide, by creating a momentum to foster theadoption ofM-health solutions. It will engage citizens in a Short Message Service (SMS)dialogue on health, encouraging them to express their views and concerns about healthcare.Ladies and Gentlemen,

This year needs to be a year of shared partnership and problem solving toovercome the hurdles we face to advance eHealth. I look forward to the recommendationsand initiatives that will emerge from this meeting. They will not only make a significantcontribution to the deliberations we will have at the Annual Ministerial Review in July inGeneva, but will also advance the well-being of people.

I would now like to welcome our speakers to share their experiences andknowledge with us to better understand and make progress on eHealth.Thank you.

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