DG/2000/16 Original: English UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION Address by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) at the African Summit on Roll Back Malaria Abuja, 24 April 2000
1 Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, It is an honour to be here with you today and to join in the African summit on Roll Back Malaria. I congratulate President Olusegun Obasanjo for his initiative in proposing and hosting this meeting of African heads of state, ministers, public health officials and international partners. I salute the World Health Organization and its Director-General Dr Gro Bruntland for launching the Roll Back Malaria global partnership: its coalition of UN agencies, development banks, governments and NGOs is already proving highly effective. Malaria is a global health problem and a primary cause of poverty: this means it must be tackled first and foremost through political leadership and political commitment. So I welcome as a very positive signal, the gathering of African leaders at the highest level here in Abuja, capital of Africa s most populous nation. Tomorrow, the heads of state will commit themselves to strategies and targets for reducing the terrible economic and social burden of malaria in Africa. I know I do not need to remind this audience of its impact: not only the appalling loss of life - over a million deaths each year, most here in Africa - but also the appalling toll in terms of lost health and energy, absence from work and schooling, inroads into the family budget for malaria treatment. Added up, all of this fills millions and millions of lives each day with misery and even tragedy, when they could be full of hope and opportunity. For malaria is preventable; malaria is treatable and it is curable. And even though the search for a vaccine still remains elusive, scientific research may yet lead to an efficient system of vaccination against malaria. The Roll Back Malaria partnership provides a well-functioning framework for tackling the problem of this deadly and debilitating disease. What is needed now is a public awareness, a global mobilisation as powerful as for HIV/AIDS. Malaria is anything but a marginal problem. Yet it still does not receive the attention that a major health problem should receive from the international community. The South cannot be left to cope alone simply because malaria is only endemic in Southern regions!
2 We must not under-estimate the effort that will be needed to roll back malaria. It will require a major funding commitment in each and every country where malaria is endemic and a key target of that funding effort must be to build up scientific research capacity. Without a scientific capacity of its own, Africa will not be able to tackle and overcome its endemic diseases. It will not be able to play a full role in the research for a malaria vaccine. It will not be able to develop its own cost-effective antimalaria products. It will not be able to explore the scientific potential of its traditional remedies. Today, even the least developed countries cannot afford not to build up a national science base. Our globalised, connected world shows us every day the power of shared knowledge. But to share knowledge means sharing as active partners, not as passive recipients. African scientists should be setting the agenda and steering malaria research. This means that African governments should be funding scientific research and it means that the international donor community should declare a firm commitment to helping them do so. On the occasion of the African Summit on Roll Back Malaria, I strongly appeal to the donor community and to the heavily indebted countries to engage actively in debt swaps for science. For the many African nations which qualify for debt relief, the allocation of resources freed by debt reduction to science and technology can offer a means of breaking the vicious circle of under-development. It offers an entry to the knowledge society. UNESCO has produced a Guide to negotiating debt relief for science and technology. This practical, step-by-step handbook was drawn up in response to a call made at the World Conference on Science in Budapest last June for debt swaps for science. It shows that it is feasible to integrate a science funding component, whatever the stage the debt relief negotiations have reached. I pledge UNESCO s support for countries entering this process. We will spare no effort helping countries negotiate debt swaps. We can promote dialogue between governments and sponsoring bodies, provide expertise, monitor the process, assist with the implementation of regional strategies.
3 Debt relief for science should be seized on as an opportunity to strengthen local capacities in basic and applied research. I know that research capacity is not a short-term answer to the problem of malaria. But I am deeply convinced that it is nevertheless an urgent need as well as a long-term answer, to which the development banks, the international donor community and the business sector should lend their support. I hope this summit will be the occasion on which many countries determine with the full backing and concrete solidarity of the international community to take steps towards building a research base of their own. I know the commitment has already been expressed, for example at the Organization of African Unity summit in Algiers last July, which called for at least three per cent of UNDP funding for each OAU Member State to go to science and technology research. Now is the time to implement this decision and ensure that science and technology capacity-building is made a priority. On this, my first visit to Africa in my capacity as Director-General of UNESCO, I wanted not only to call for debt swaps for science, but also to make a special point of bringing, in person, the message of UNESCO s commitment to this important meeting. Our Organization will play its part in the concerted action on malaria. We will follow with great attention the deliberations of this meeting, in order to help implement the Plan of Action it will adopt. Education clearly plays a pivotal role in malaria prevention. UNESCO expects to develop educational tools and also to implement basic research training programmes: these are essential components of the offensive against malaria. I am confident that important, concrete measures will be decided here in Abuja. The health, the social and economic well-being of many millions of African men, women and especially children depend on it. As you know, the World Education Forum takes place in Dakar, Senegal this week. I am leaving for Dakar later to-day. As I said when I took up my duties at the head of UNESCO, basic education must be the absolute priority of our Organization. I have every hope that the Dakar Conference will be the point of departure for a new dynamic, a renewed and far more
4 vigorous commitment by all partners. And yet, the great challenges Africa is facing in education cannot be overcome if diseases like malaria are undermining the strategies set up to achieve the goals of Education for All. Therefore I see the Abuja Summit as an important step that can help turn Education for All into a reality for Africa: if the bodies of the learners are healthy, then their minds will be more receptive to learning. By ensuring the health and education of your peoples, you are offering them the strongest tool of all for the eradication of poverty. Let me say once again in conclusion, how much I commend President Obasanjo s initiative in calling for this summit.