Leading By Example In Protecting The Most Vulnerable

EMBARGOED UNTIL 6AM, TUESDAY 16 JUNE

Leading by Example in Protecting The Most Vulnerable

I welcome the second report of the Network of Global Leaders that highlights how 15 nations including Australia are taking a lead role in protecting the most vulnerable during the global recession.

The 2009 Report of the Global Campaign for the Health Millennium Development Goals, released in New York, outlines how countries are making the protection of vulnerable people, particularly women and children, a priority in their aid programs.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is a contributor to the report as a member of the Network of Global Leaders. The report calls for more urgent action as the global recession has driven more than 50 million people into extreme poverty.

It also warns that progress towards achieving the health UN Millennium Development Goals of reducing child mortality and improving maternal health is also threatened.

In our region about 250,000 women die annually of preventable and treatable complications in pregnancy and childbirth. Almost four million children die before their fifth birthday and five million people are living with HIV.

The report lists Australia among nations protecting the vulnerable by our commitments to increase aid, prioritise assistance for the vulnerable and work more effectively together. We remain committed to increasing Official Development Assistance to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income by 2015.

Our support for health and HIV activities will increase to more than $595 million in 2009-10, which represents a 35 per cent increase in health aid in just one year. We are working with partner countries and other donors to ensure our funds are directed to where they are needed most.

The Australian Government is currently considering recommendations of a recent report from the High-Level Task Force on Innovative Financing for Health Systems, in which I have participated and which is chaired by the UK Prime Minster Gordon Brown and the President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick.

More Money for Health and More Health for the Money recommends raising additional and better resources that are needed to achieve the health MDGs and help poor countries through the global recession.

Both of these reports are important contributions as the world faces the challenges of the global recession and the outbreak of H1N1. They underline Australia's commitments and remind us there is much work to be done to protect the vulnerable.

The report, which is embargoed until 6am on Tuesday 16 June, is available at:
www.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/lead_by_example.pdf

Media Contacts:
Sabina Curatolo or Tony Hodges (Mr McMullan's office)
0400 318 205

AusAID Public Affairs
0417 680 590

Media releases and speeches are available on AusAID's website
www.ausaid.gov.au

SOURCE: AusAID