[EQ] The Buzz about the Upcoming G8 Summit and Global Health

The Buzz about the Upcoming G8 Summit and Global Health

Jennifer Zelmer Editor-in-chief Healthcare Policy,  5(4) 2010: 10-14
Website: http://bit.ly/bWSOTi

G8 summit on June 25-26 in Canada’s Muskoka region: http://g8.gc.ca/g8-summit/

 

“………G8 watchers have been speculating about the blackflies in Muskoka for months, but it is mosquitoes that will feature in formal discussions at the upcoming Summit. As host of the G8, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that he will ask his colleagues to focus on the extent to which countries have met previous G8 commitments (Office of the Prime Minister 2010). Among them was a pledge in 1998 to support the global "Roll Back Malaria" initiative, with the goal of significantly reducing the death rate from the disease by 2010.

 

G8 watchers have been speculating about the blackflies in Muskoka for months, but it is mosquitoes that will feature in formal discussions at the upcoming Summit. As host of the G8, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced that he will ask his colleagues to focus on the extent to which countries have met previous G8 commitments (Office of the Prime Minister 2010). Among them was a pledge in 1998 to support the global "Roll Back Malaria" initiative, with the goal of significantly reducing the death rate from the disease by 2010.

 

Canada will also be championing a global agenda for improving maternal and child health at the Summit. With only five years left until the 2015 deadline, much progress still needs to be made to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (Secretary General to the United Nations 2010). One of those goals is to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. The United Nations reports that child mortality in developing countries fell from 99 deaths per 1,000 live births at the beginning of this period to 72 in 2008. With a goal of 33 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2015, there is still much to do.

 

Can it be done? Historical analysis by Hans Rosling (2009) from Sweden's Karolinska Institute demonstrates that significant progress is possible…..

References

Bourbeau, R., J. Légaré and V. Émond. 1997. "New Birth Cohort Life Tables for Canada and Québec, 1801–1991." Current Demographic Analysis, Demographic Document No. 3 (Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 91F00115MPE). Ottawa: Statistics Canada.

Office of the Prime Minister. 2010. Canada's G8 Priorities. Retrieved April 12, 2010. http://pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=3093

Rosling, H. 2009. Yes They Can. Stockholm: Gapminder Foundation. Retrieved April 12, 2010. <http://www.gapminder.org/videos/yes-they-can/

Secretary General to the United Nations. 2010. Keeping the Promise: A Forward-Looking Review to Promote an Agreed Action Agenda to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. New York: Report of the Secretary General to the Sixty-Fourth Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Retrieved April 12, 2010. http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/64/665

Statistics Canada. 2010. "Table 102-0506 – Infant Deaths and Mortality Rates, by Age Group and Sex, Canada, Annual." CANSIM (database). Retrieved April 12, 2010. http://cansim2.statcan.gc.ca/cgi-win/cnsmcgi.exe?Lang=E&CNSM-Fi=CII/CII_1-eng.htm

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). 2010. "Table 1: Basic Indicators: The State of the World's Children." Downloadable Statistical Indicators. Retrieved April 12, 2010. http://www.unicef.org/rightsite/sowc/pdfs/statistics/SOWC%20Table%201%20Basic%20indicator_111109.xls

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