PAHO Director to Visit Canada
Washington, D.C., April 29, 2005 (PAHO)—Dr. Mirta Roses, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) visits Canada next week to meet Health Minister Dr. Ujjal Dosanjh and other officials.
She is also scheduled to visit the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to discuss current and future areas of collaboration, and to meet with officials of the Public Health Agency of Canada, including Director General Gina Balice.
Canada's International Development Research Center (IDRC) is the site of a working meeting with Roses, where officials will discuss issues related to eco-health, the Summit of the Americas, and the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas. She is also slated to meet with Jamal Khokhar, director general of the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau at Foreign Affairs Canada.
Roses is scheduled to give a presentation on "Health in the Americas" Tuesday, May 3 at the IDRC, focusing on equity and health. She notes that despite the enormous increases in life expectancy in the Americas, there are still major differences among countries and within countries.
PAHO's director says that "The greatest share of health problems is attributable to broad social conditions. They are the 'causes behind the causes' of ill-health: poverty, social exclusion, inappropriate housing, shortcomings in safeguarding early childhood, unsafe employment conditions, lack of quality health systems, stigma and discrimination."
Yet, she says, "Health policies have been dominated by disease-focused solutions that largely ignore the social environment. As a result, health problems persist, inequalities have widened, and health interventions have obtained less than optimal results. There is evidence that policy, action, and leadership to address the social dimensions of health can improve health and access to health care."
"The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have brought the investment in people's health to the very center of the global development agenda, opening new opportunities for the health sector and health organizations to gain wide support for the health agenda," Roses says, adding that "there is a close match between the challenges set by the goals and PAHO's new strategic priorities and directions to address health determinants, protect health as a public good and human right, create a synergy between actors, and ensure fairness of distribution."
PAHO, which serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization, works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and quality of life of their people. PAHO Member States today include all 35 countries in the Americas. France, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are Participating States. Portugal and Spain are Observer States, and Puerto Rico is an Associate Member.
For more information please contact , PAHO, Public Information, 202-974-3459.