Today (April 7th) is the World Health Day. Its 2007 theme is "Invest in health, build a safer future". The concerned messages are:
1. Invest in health, build a safer future.
2. Threats to health know no borders.
3. Health leads to security; insecurity leads to poor health.
4. Preparedness and quick response improve international health security.
5. The World Health Organization is making the world more secure
Coincidentally, the World Health Organization was also established 59 years ago on 7 April 1948. The World Health theme 2007 is somehow related to some of the Millennium Development Goals adopted unanimously at the 2000 U.N. Millennium Assembly, namely,
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. By 2015, reduce by half both the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day and the share suffering from hunger.
- Reduce child mortality. By 2015, reduce by two-thirds the mortality rate among children under five;
- Improve maternal health. By 2015, reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality rate.
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases by 2015.
- Ensure environmental sustainability. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs and reverse the loss of environmental resources. By 2015, cut in half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation. By 2020, improve significantly the lives of 100 million slum dwellers.
The interesting question here is: Can the various UN assemblies and committees work in a truly collaborative and synergistic manner to reach their goals? Otherwise, things could be dragged in a discord owing to bureaucracies and ambiguous accountabilities much after the fashion of the ineffectiveness in dealing with cross-border pollution among government bureaus in Hong Kong.
