President Mwai Kibaki Monday challenged African Governments to mobilize adequate resources in order to finance the implementation of priority health programmes.
Addressing the 7th Global Conference on Health Promotion at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, President Kibaki noted that Africa faces serious socio-economic challenges that aggravate the health situation in the continent.
The President said that the African continent faces major challenges in addressing the social determinants of health among them poverty, housing, food security and education.
The Head of State noted that among the critical challenges that have recently aggravated health standards in the continent include infectious diseases, the global financial crisis and the effects of climate change.
He said that the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goal Five, "Improving Maternal Health" appeared bleak despite its importance in reproductive health and promotion of health standards generally.
'Maternal mortality'
The President noted that high maternal deaths recorded worldwide translated to the death of a mother every minute adding that the forum was timely in efforts to explore innovative strategies of protecting mother and infants.
He asserted that it was unacceptable for so many mothers to perish during childbirth despite the decreased cases of maternal mortality reported in 2005.
President Kibaki observed "Globally, 536,000 maternal deaths occur per year which translates to one maternal death every minute. Maternal mortality decreased globally by less than 0.4% per year between 1990 and 2005. This is far below the 5.5% annual decrease needed to achieve the projected 75% decrease by 2015."
In Kenya the President noted that the country had achieved a 40 per cent reduction in deaths among under-five children for the last five years an achievement he attributed to increased immunization coverage.
The Head of State affirmed that the Conference which is the first to be held in Africa since its inception in 1986 in Ottawa , Canada was testimony of Africa 's commitment to address health challenges facing the continent.
President Kibaki expressed confidence that the forum would highlight critical health challenges as well as formulate recommendations whose contribution to the promotion of health standards would accelerate attainment of the millennium development goals.
The Head of State called on the visiting participants to spare a few days to sample Kenya 's scenic tourist sites and to sample the warmth and generosity of Kenyans.
Public Health Minister Beth Mugo called for collaborative efforts of the developing and development nations to avert further climate change and cross border conflicts to sustain health promotion interventions undertaken by the various countries.
The Minister attributed re-emergence of infectious diseases earlier eradicated, malaria and climate change to destruction of the environment caused by competition for natural resources but assured that the Kenya government was doing everything possible to scale up interventions.
Mrs Mugo said the five-day conference attended by delegates from 102 countries would enable sharing of experiences and policies from the various participating countries to add value to the Bangkok charter of 2005 and hasten attainment of the Health MDGs.
Medical Services counterpart Prof. Anyang Nyong'o stressed the need for adequate resources to be devoted to the health sector and challenged development partners to honour their pending commitments to health care.
Prof. Nyong'o noted that while aspirations in health promotion initiatives among decision makers was high, the delivery remained below expectation of the beneficiaries, urging policy makers to address the issue of health care access for the majority poor.
The World Health Organization Regional Director Dr. Luis Gomes Sambo said the heavy participation of African delegates in the conference was the dawn of a new era in health promotion in the continent.
Dr. Sambo called for inter-sectoral collaborative approach to health promotion initiatives to realize people-centred and globally acceptable results.
The conference attended by visiting Ministers for Health from various Countries across the globe and senior Kenya government officials was also addressed by Thailand Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Health, which hosted the 6th conference, Dr. Sathaporn Wongchareon and the former chair, Commission on Social Determinants of Health Prof. Michael Marmot.
