[AU-Monitor] Archbishop Tutu/Wangari Maathai urge African Union Heads of State Summit to Act Speedily to end Africa's Public Health Disaster

[Rotimi]

Press Statement ­ Issued 28 January 2007

Africa¹s Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Professor
Wangari Maathai urge African Union Heads of State Summit to Act Speedily to
end Africa's Public Health Disaster

­ Tutu Underlines that unless AU member states meet pledge to allocate 15%
of national budgets to health care, Africa could loose 120 million lives by
2015 Millennium Development Goals deadline.

- Maathai stresses the need for states and business to develop and implement
environmental health policies to protect citizens and continent.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate and Honorary Chair of the
Africa Public Health Rights Alliance ³15% Now!² Campaign has written to the
African Union Heads of State Summit [holding in Addis Ababa from 29 to 30th
January 2007] urging them to ensure that they meet the 2001 African Union
Abuja pledge to allocate 15% of national budgets to healthcare.** See full
letter to African Union at end of press statement

In the letter sent to the AU Summit, Archbishop Tutu stated that
³sustainable financing for public health in Africa is arguably the most
important challenge facing our continent today². He underlined that with ³an
estimated 8 million Africans dying annually from preventable, treatable and
manageable diseases and health conditions...² this means ³...an estimated 40
million Africans have died over the past 5 years from health related
conditions as a result of the 2001 Abuja commitment not being met².

He further stated that this figure of 40 million  ³surpasses the total
deaths from all modern African and global conflicts including the two world
wars and, is roughly the equivalent of the combined population of Africa¹s
ten least populous countries²

³Nothing can be more important to African governments than the lives of
African citizens² he added, emphasising that  - ³at the almost unbelievable
annual death rates, Africa could loose an estimated 120 million lives
between 2000 and 2015 which is when the three health based Millennium
Development Goals of Reducing Child Mortality, Improving Maternal Health,
and reducing HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases should have been achieved²

Speaking earlier at the ³15% Now!² Campaign event at the just concluded
World Social Forum in Nairobi fellow Laureate Professor Maathai supported
the call for the 15% pledge to be met and further called on African
governments to ensure that environmental health is factored into overall
health budgeting. 

She also stressed that ³it is of utmost importance that states, as well as
business and citizens give priority to environmental health.²

Giving the example of malaria which kills over a million Africans annually,
she decried the production of poor quality plastic bags and containers which
are not biodegradable and are not good enough to use more than once. ³these
low quality plastic bags and containers litter our environment in their
millions creating habitats for mosquitoes to breed and spread malaria.²

³Our governments must stop the production of these environmentally
unfriendly plastics, and citizens should use alternative such as baskets for
shopping. Only when the demand falls will the companies that make these bags
produce stronger and degradable ones which do not facilitate disease and
death²

In a related development, Rotimi Sankore Coordinator of the ³15% Now²
Campaign congratulated the government of Botswana on being the first African
Union member state to surpass the 2001 AU 15% pledge.

Botswana¹s Minister of Health Hon. Professor Sheila Tlou D. Tlou announced
at a special HIV and AIDS conference of the Southern Africa Development
Community - Parliamentary Forum [in Gaborone, Botswana on the 24th of
January] that Botswana will be allocating 21% of its national budget to
healthcare.

Speaking at the conference attended by SADC Ministers and Directors of
Health, members of Parliament, scientists and civil society, Rotimi Sankore
stated ³The Africa Public Health Rights Alliance ³15% Now!² campaign urges
other SADC countries, and African Union member states to follow the
inspiring example of Botswana to halt the slide towards possible extinction
of Africans². 

He also called on those African countries whose health spending is
constrained by expenditure ceilings imposed by the IMF and other
institutions to strongly consider breaking the ceilings stating that ³the
first obligation of governments is to save lives, and not to meet
insensitive and immoral loan conditionalities by IMF officials that are in
effect a death sentence to millions that will be denied access to
healthcare².

ENDS

For further information please contact the following:
 
Contacts- 
Dapo Awosokanre / Centre for Research Education & Development of Rights in
Africa (CREDO Africa): In Addis Ababa +251912129331, or +44 207 424 5744,
media @ credonet.org
 
Miano Munene / Kenya Health Rights Advocacy Network (KHRAN): Tel: +254 20
3874998 Email: mmiano @ khrc.or.ke

Sisonke Msimang / Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA): Tel.
+27 11 403 3414, sisonkem @ osiafrica.org
 
Eric Friedman /Physicians for Human Rights: +1-202-728-5335 ext. 303
,efriedman @ phrusa.org
 
Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi / Women Advocates & Research Documentation Centre
(WARDC): +234 8055951858 womenadvocate @ yahoo.com
=======================================

**Archbishop Tutu¹s Letter to the African Union Summit holding in Addis
Ababa 29 to 30 January 2007

African Union Headquarters
P.O. Box 3243  
Addis Ababa Ethiopia

To Heads of State, member states of the African Union
Meeting at the January 2007 AU Summit in Addis Ababa

Thru
H.E. President Alpha Oumar Konare
Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union

26 January 2007


Your Excellencies,

Appeal to African Union Heads of State to implement without further delay
the 2001 summit pledge to allocate 15% or more of national budgets to health
sector


I am writing to you on the very crucial matter of sustainable financing for
public health in Africa which is arguably the most important challenge
facing our continent today.

Indeed African governments themselves realised the importance of healthcare
to Africa¹s future and development when at the 2001 Abuja summit AU member
states pledged to commit at least 15% or more of national budgets to
healthcare.

Sadly however this commitment has remained largely unmet and needs to be
revisited as a matter of urgency. If this is not done, it is very possible
that our continent will die out before our eyes. This is no exaggeration.
All the available statistics from the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS,
UNICEF, UNIFEM and African institutions indicate that an estimated 8 million
Africans are dying annually from preventable, treatable and manageable
diseases and health conditions.

In other words, an estimated 40 million Africans have died over the past 5
years from health related conditions as a result of the 2001 Abuja
commitment not being met. This surpasses the total deaths from all modern
African and global conflicts including the two world wars and, is roughly
the equivalent of the combined population of Africa¹s ten least populous
countries.

The 2006 figures from global and African health institutions are self
evident. 586,911 Africans are dying from Tuberculosis annually, this is 35%
of the world total. African¹s living with TB are estimated to be 3,740,695.
TB is also a leading killer of women in Africa and increasingly most HIV
related deaths are from TB. Annual AIDS death figures for Africa are 2.1
million. An estimated 24.7 million Africans are living with HIV, new
infections are at a high of 2.8 million and Aids Orphans are estimated at 12
million. In the case of  Malaria, annual African deaths are estimated at
1,136,000 (89.3%) of the world total. Now that scientists have recently
established that having malaria accelerates HIV infection, it is possible
that a convergence of all three diseases could worsen the casualty figures.

Even figures for maternal mortality, which is almost 100% preventable by the
provision of adequate facilities and personnel claims the lives of an
estimated 300,000 African women annually - over half the global total.
Experts estimate that if the trend continues over the next decade, 2.5
million women, and 2.5 million children will die of birth related
complications, and maternal disabilities may cripple an estimated 49 million
women irreversibly.
 
Most shockingly child mortality in Africa contributes the biggest percentage
of annual health related deaths - an estimated 4.8 million children under
the age of 5 years die annually. Five diseases - pneumonia, diarrhoea,
malaria, measles and AIDS - account for half of these deaths and underline
the urgent need for clean water, sanitation and vaccinations as part of a
comprehensive health package.
 
Nothing can be more important to African governments than the lives of
African citizens. I urge you to ensure that from the meetings of the African
Union Ambassadors, the Ministers, to the Heads of States summit that the 15%
Abuja commitment is at the top of the summit agenda and a timetable is set
for re-ordering African budget priorities towards urgently meeting the 15%
commitment. Africa cannot depend indefinitely on international support
regardless of any historical circumstances that have contributed to Africa¹s
current underdevelopment.

At the almost unbelievable annual death rates, Africa could loose an
estimated 120 million lives between 2000 and 2015 which is when the three
health based Millennium Development Goals of Reducing Child Mortality,
Improving Maternal Health, and reducing HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
should have been achieved.

I urge you to act speedily and wish you successful deliberations in your
meetings.


God bless you
 
+ Desmond M Tutu Archbishop Emeritus

Honorary Chair
Africa Public Health Rights Alliance ³15% Now!² Campaign


*Partners of the Africa Public Health Rights Alliance ³15% Now!² Campaign
are:

Honorary Chair: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
 
* Action Group for Health, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS (AGHA), Uganda,
* Africa Health Research Organization,
* Africa Internally Displaced Persons Voice (Africa IDP Voice),
* African Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by
HIV and AIDS (ANERELA+),
* Centre for Research, Education and Development of Rights in Africa
(CREDO-Africa), 
* Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre ­ CISLAC Nigeria,
* Cross-of Ministries International Uganda (CGMI),
* Development Alternatives With Women for New Era (DAWN-Africa),
* International Refugee Rights Initiative
* Institute for Democracy in South Africa ­ Governance & Aids Prog (IDASA)
* Kenya Health Rights Advocacy Network (KHRAN),
* KIGEZI Healthcare Foundation, Uganda ,
* Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA),
* Oeuvre de Charité et Développement de LEMBA (OCDL ongd/asbl) - DRC,
* POSITIVE-Generation (Cameroon),
* Positive Women¹s Network, South Africa ,
* Physicians for Human Rights (PHR),
* RESULTS, 
* Santayalla Support Society (Togo),
* Society for Women and AIDS in Africa ­ Southern Africa (SWAA Mozambique),
* Southern Africa HIV & AIDS Dissemination Services (Safaids),
* Stop TB and HIV/AIDS-The Gambia,
* Tbaction Kenya, 
* Treatment Action Campaign (TAC),
* Tuberculosis National League (Cameroon),
* Women Advocates and Research Documentation Centre (WARDC),
* World Aids Campaign (WAC),
* Zimbabwe College of Public Health Physicians


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