• by Margaret Chan
• Tuesday, March 17, 2009
• Inter Press Service

The current economic crisis poses an enormous challenge to global health but also offers opportunities to lay the foundations for more equitable and effective health systems in the future, and to rationalise and improve the way that international organisations work for the health of people throughout the world, writes Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organisation.

In this article, the author writes that in past recessions, development aid was cut just when it was needed most. This must not happen again. We cannot afford to sacrifice hard-won gains in child and women's health, in the fight against AIDS, TB, and malaria, and in building strong, health delivery systems. Counter-cyclical public spending provides a means of reviving economies in those countries that can afford it. Aid will play a key role in providing a boost that many low-income countries cannot finance alone.

The financial crisis requires that the international health community ask some fundamental questions about the way we do business. We cannot afford duplication between different agencies. We must insist on co-ordinated modes of working that ensure maximum synergy among health programmes. The crisis has to be seen as a spur to reform of the UN development system, not a constraint.

(*) Margaret Chan is Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, NEW ZEALAND, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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