SI at the recent 62nd-World Health Assembly

Soroptimist International- At the 62nd World Health Assembly, 18-22 May 2009, Geneva, Switzerland-

Dawn Marie Lemonds, SI Programme Director

Four Soroptimists were privileged to be part of the Non Governmental Delegation at the 62nd World Health Assembly held in Geneva this week: President Elect Hanne Jensbo from Denmark, Inger Nordback- UN Representative to the UN Geneva, Sina Stiffler- member from Switzerland, and me- from California USA. What an amazing time to view the world coming together so effectively for this annual meeting in the midst of a world pandemic crisis of the H1 N1 Influenza Virus and do it so cooperatively! One of the big messages for me was the world’s appreciation of the World Health Organization (WHO) - a UN Agency- for the effective, transparent, timely, collaborative and responsive work by WHO and World health providers to address this crisis! Reports and transcripts of some of the presentations can be read on the WHO website at www.who.int/en/ of the Assembly including live video coverage of the opening speech by WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and a surprise and marvelous speech by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon! It is well worth your while to see these presentations.

The following represents a little highlight or snapshot of the event from the observer's eye- my attempt to make this momentous time real to this readership! A full report will follow soon on the Soroptimist International website- www.soroptimistinternational.org

The experience of any UN event always begins with the potentially laborious process of registration. Of course the weather had to be a bit uncooperative and challenged us a bit with a gentle rain (unlike the sleet and snow of New York during CSW this year!) However- that was the ONLY thing that was not well organized! With amazing efficiency, after swiftly registering the thousands of registrants at the WHO Headquarters, we were sent in little vans to the other side of the “UN campus" to the ‘Palais des Nations Unies’ for the Assembly. We were through the entire procedure, including going to the wrong place first- within 1 hour!

We "sussed" out where to go, found our little NGO section of the General Assembly room and waited eagerly for the opening that was hailed with the sounding of a horn and official greetings by a minister of Geneva dressed in his official red robes. We spent that time wisely in the NGO section- networking with other agency representatives including the Director of the International Obesity Organization and the President of the International Diabetes Organization. I was reminded that one of the great benefits of these events is the "collaborative parallel" events that occur spontaneously as we conduct reunions or new meetings with people interested in mutual topics.

An example of these "meetings" included a few other extremely interesting and important contacts that we met- one- a woman from the WHO Gender Office who manages communications. We had a great discussion about NGOs and now have a specific contact within this very important office at the UN who is working diligently to ensure that Gender is put on every agenda of the work at WHO. Another meeting was with a young man at UNAIDs who works for The Global Coalition on Women and AIDS. It was fascinating to learn what that organization does and it became clear that their mission and ours are quite compatible.
What we learned- following are a few examples of things we learned with more content to follow in the next article to be posted later this week:

-Director-General Chan emphasized that the health crisis is worsening because of the economic crisis. It is more important than ever for the world to be creative, collaborative, improve our performance, finance with wisdom and foresight and be transparent with all systems.

-The new influenza- H1N1 has been a “test” of systems that are in place and processes that need to be improved. It is gratifying to see that we have learned from our confrontation with SARS.

-The failure to achieve the millennium development goals thus far need not make them unattainable. (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals)

-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon- who made an unannounced visit - has consistently supported global health as a top priority. SG Ban stated his horror at the reality that the least progress toward all MDGs is that of Maternal Health. – “Not investing in maternal health is morally wrong and foolish…..No woman should have to give her life to give life.”



Part II Blog Article that will feature specific some Highlights of the sessions we attended.