A conference on Closing the gap in a generation [antikvár]

Foreword by the Prime MinisterInequalities in health across our world today not only condemn millions to avoidable ill-health, but limit the developmentand hence the prosperity of societies and whole nations. But health inequalities and the deep injustices they inflict are notimmutable, as this conference will show. By bringing together governments and leading international health experts, we arepart of an historic global effort - long overdue, but with immense potential for good.Today, when our understanding of ill-health and its causes and our ability to prevent and treat disease are greater thanever before, the real challenge for societies, governments and international organisations now is how to make their benefitsavailable to all. Yet the persistence of health inequalities as reported by the Commission on Social Determinants of Healthshows just how far we still have to go. Far too many of us - millions all round the globe still cannot enjoy the kind ofhealthy life that many of us already take for granted.Even in Britain, where the National Health Service has done so much to deliver healthcare to everyone regardless of abilityto pay, we still have much further to go, and we know it. So we are still investing to ensure world-class services, availableto all and personal to each. And we must also do far more to reduce the burden of ill-health by promoting and supportinghealthier lives for everyone, because only by such a radical strategy will we ever be able to eliminate the kind of inequalitieswhich mean that, with every stop on the Jubilee Line of the London Underground from Westminster eastwards to CanningTown, life expectancy goes down by one year.To tackle global health inequities we must build on international progress. At the United Nations in September, Britainwas proud to be part of a multi-national delegation pledging a total of $16bn aimed at restoring progress towards meetingthe Millennium Development Goals. This included a $3 billion global malaria action plan and the launch of a newtaskforce on innovative financing for health systems that will help towards funding over a million health workers, savingten million lives by 2015.Yet despite these initiatives, and overall increases in life expectancy, huge challenges remain.Today, through this conference, we have a unique opportunity to share good practice and learn from each other in a renewedeffort to address health inequalities within nations. But, perhaps even more significantly, we have the opportunity to work inpartnership - together with the WHO - to tackle health inequalities between them too.Good health for all must be our shared ambition. But in an inter-dependent world characterised by increasing traveland migration - and where ill-health knows no boundaries - promoting good health can no longer be left solely toindividual countries.So we must work together. And at this time when nations are collaborating as never before to rebuild our internationalfinancial system, so we too must demonstrate the courage and visionary internationalism to advance the cause of health forall. It is a challenge at many levels - scientific, organisational, and of course financial; but the prize is great: a fairer, healthier,and more prosperous global society.Gordon Brown