Catering To Global Need

[Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke at the United Nations  of] "one of the world's great tragedies" in the high mortality rate of mothers and young children in developing countries of the world.
"But there is an even greater tragedy. The deaths of these women and children -- victims, mostly, of disease, poor nutrition and inadequate care -- are often entirely preventable."
"To the world's mothers and their children, these goals are literally vital. Degrees of failure are not measured in dollars; they will be measured in thousands of lives."
"It is ... essential to the proper allocation of resources that vital statistics be accurately registered. "Frankly, if we are to know how much of a difference we are making, it is imperative that every birth be registered and every death recorded."
"Among those born now, who in another era would have died, there are some who will gladly bear on their shoulders responsibility for their fellow countrymen as teachers, businessmen and women, and also ultimately as leaders."
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete and Melinda Gates participate in a UN event focusing on health challenges facing women and children in the developing world on Wednesday. Photo: Adrian Wyld/THE CANADIAN PRESS

"We used to produce only 250 doctors. This year we have reached over 600 doctors per annum, and we are building another facility where we will be able to take 12,000 students."
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete

Canada's Stephen Harper saw nothing to be gained by choosing to address the General Assembly of the United Nations as some other world leaders were doing. In many circles it is ruefully and regretfully acknowledged as representing an empty exercise reflecting a forum that allows world leaders of disrepute to portray themselves in a manner in which they wish to be seen, completely divorced from the realities of their and their country's values and manner of governance.

There are, within the United Nations, many arms of institutional activity that reach out into the world to help make it a better place, focusing on global health, nutrition distribution, care of refugees and similar trans-national focuses. In those areas the hypocrisy of so many of the UN's member-states does not interfere with the delivery of humanitarian aid and hope for the future that many United Nations initiatives make possible. With funding from its members.

Maternal and child care imperatives were an issue that Canada in particular emphasized and championed when it hosted the G8 and G20 meetings in Toronto in 2010, as a signature issue to be addressed, explored, resolved, determined and funded. And the Government of Canada has followed through in that initiative. The UN program named Every Woman Every Child represents a global strategy to improve the health of women and children.

Canada represents itself well in that issue, recognized as being among the largest contributors, with an overall pledge of $1.1-billion. A final $203-million has been announced as Canada's ongoing global commitment to the cause, meant to be spent by 2015. A panel discussion on the uncompleted agenda of the millennium development goals at the United Nations presented the opportunity for Mr. Harper to make his country's ongoing commitment known and recognized.

Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, spoke glowingly in recognition of Prime Minister Harper's initiative in rallying the G8, and from there the United Nations, behind the program as a "watershed" occurrence in improving women's and children's global health. "You raised the resources, but more importantly the political support, behind child and women's health", she praised.