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Health See other Health Articles Title: The puppets danced (Health Care Reform) SUMMIT IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW GROUP (SIRG) OEA/Ser.E GRIC/DC-V/doc.1/08 21 July 2008 Original: English Fifth Summit of the Americas Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago April 19, 2009 Draft Declaration of Commitment ‘Securing Our Citizens’ Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability’ 1. Guided by a renewed spirit of regional cooperation, integration and solidarity, we, the Heads of State and Government of the democratic countries of the Americas, have gathered in Port of Spain, at the Fifth Summit of the Americas, with a firm commitment to improve the well-being of all our people by advancing collective solutions to the most pressing challenges facing our Hemisphere. We reiterate our will to strengthen national and hemispheric efforts to create conditions for greater peace, security and prosperity for all the peoples of the Americas. 2. In accordance with the principles and values of the Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, we are determined to continue our fight against poverty, hunger, social exclusion, discrimination and inequality which afflict the lives and erode the hopes of so many in our Hemisphere. 3. We, therefore, renew our commitment, to all the peoples of the Americas, to improve the quality of their lives by adopting and implementing an Inter-American strategy of collaboration, with the support of the institutions of the United Nations and the Inter-American System, to complement all our nations’ efforts to foster greater opportunities for decent employment, to improve health, wellness and nutrition, to increase access to quality education, to ensure adequate and sustainable energy, and to manage our environment responsibly. 4. We affirm that these issues are closely inter-dependent with our efforts to build stronger democratic institutions, promote good governance and social inclusion, uphold the rule of law, increase access to justice, protect human rights, combat violence, crime and terrorism, and achieve broader civic participation of all citizens of the Inter-American Community. Promoting Human Prosperity 16. We recognize that the problems of inequality of access and exclusion from basic health services persist, especially among the most vulnerable, including women, children, indigenous peoples and the poor. We, therefore, commit to providing essential social protection and universal access to quality healthcare, taking into account labour, environment, gender and social security policies, and will increase public spending on health to at least 5% of GDP by 2015 in order to address the health challenges faced by our people. 17. While the region has made strides in reducing mortality in infants and children under 5 years, neonatal mortality has not decreased at the same rate. We call on the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to continue to assist countries in addressing this problem through the implementation of the Regional Strategic Plan of Action based on the Interagency Strategic Consensus on Reducing Neonatal Mortality and Morbidity in Latin America and the Caribbean. 18. We are convinced that the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) can be reduced by comprehensive and integrated preventive and control strategies at the individual, family, community, national and regional levels and through collaborative programmes, partnerships and policies supported by governments, the private sector, the media, NGOs and relevant regional and international partners. We, therefore, reiterate our support for the PAHO/WHO Regional Strategy on an Integrated Approach to the Prevention and Control of Chronic Diseases Including Diet, Physical Activity, and Health. 19. We instruct our Ministers of Health, with the support of PAHO/WHO, to establish surveillance systems by 2015 for NCDs and their risk factors, as part of our national public health 4 surveillance systems. We encourage the establishment of National Commissions on non-communicable diseases to plan and coordinate comprehensive prevention and control strategies. 20. We commit to improving reproductive health, mental health services, community-based health care; the introduction of cost effective prevention approaches; broader screening to permit early detection of disease; and the provision of essential medicines especially to the most needy. 21. In addition, we commit to taking the necessary actions to improve the nutritional levels of all the people in the Americas by 2015 and to the full implementation of the Regional Strategy on Nutrition and Health Development 2006-2015, coordinated by PAHO. 22. In order to address the spread of vector borne diseases, especially dengue, we commit to the implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005) and call on PAHO to prepare a regional contingency plan that contains the new guidelines as set forth in the IHR by the end of 2009. 23. We are committed to the goal of halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) by 2015 by providing universal access for men and women to prevention, care, treatment and support. We will implement a regional strategy to provide such access under the coordination of the WHO and PAHO. We also commit to reducing the incidence of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to less than 5% by 2015. We reiterate our commitment to strengthening and providing adequate financing to the Global Fund to Combat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. 24. We affirm that equal access to quality education, adapted to local and global realities, is a human right, a public good and a political priority. Improving early childhood care and education, primary education and teacher training are essential approaches to achieving universal primary education by 2010. 25. We reaffirm our commitment to achieving a secondary education enrollment rate of at least 75% by the year 2010 and we now call on the Ministers of Education and the OAS, with the support of the specialised regional institutions and UNESCO, to develop a gender-sensitive hemispheric strategy to reform secondary education and make it accessible to all our children, especially those from marginalised groups, by 2015. This strategy must include reform of curricula based on the principles of equity, quality, relevance and efficiency in education, take into account cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity, and encourage innovation and creativity. 26. Recognising that education is a lifelong process that promotes social inclusion and allows people to contribute more fully to their societies, we give high priority to improving the quality of, and access to, tertiary, vocational and adult education, especially for women, rural inhabitants, persons with disabilities, Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples. We, therefore, commit to increasing the tertiary participation rate to a minimum of 40 per cent by 2020, and urge countries which have already made considerable advances in this area, to exchange good practices that will support the efforts of other countries to achieve this target. We also commit to support the ongoing professional development of teachers. 27. We will continue to invest in our young people and adopt policies and programmes that will expand their economic opportunities, increase their social engagement, open avenues for 5 leadership, allow for meaningful participation in decision-making activities, and increase the quality and coverage of social services aimed at improving their lives and promoting healthy lifestyles. We, therefore, reaffirm our commitment to the 2008 Declaration of Medellín on Youth and Democratic Values. 28. It is essential that the technological gap, both among and within the nations of the Americas, be reduced. We, therefore, renew our commitment to collaborate with regional, sub-regional and multinational agencies to advance progress in the implementation of initiatives under the Agenda for Connectivity in the Americas and the Plan of Action of Quito. We instruct our Ministers and High Level Authorities with responsibility for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to promote the use of ICTs in our education systems and our public and business sectors, and to widen access for households and communities. 29. We recognise that inter-cultural dialogue and respect for cultural diversity promote mutual understanding and convergence, which help reduce conflict, discrimination and the barriers to economic opportunity and social participation. We commit to nurturing creativity and promoting cultural industries as part of our policies for the promotion of social development, sustainable economic growth, job creation and income generation, especially for young adults. ........ 60. We instruct the General Secretariat of the OAS, in accordance with its central role in the implementation of Summit mandates, to provide a comprehensive report to the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG), annually, on the actions and progress made at all Ministerial Meetings and by the institutions of the United Nations and the Inter-American System, towards achieving the specific targets set at this Summit. 61. We direct the Ministers of Finance in collaboration with the multilateral financial institutions to convene a meeting, in the first quarter of 2010, to ensure that technical cooperation resources are available to finance the different elements of the Inter-American initiatives agreed in this document. 62. We reiterate the call, made at the Third Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, for Ministers of Finance to increase their involvement in the Summit of the Americas process and instruct them to explore ways to strengthen the strategic alliances, at the national level, among all Ministries, including those responsible for education, health, labour, social development, youth, information and communication, agriculture, energy, the environment, and crime and security. 63. We also call upon the institutions of the Joint Summit Working Group to further strengthen their commitment and to develop coordinated programmes of action to deliver the goals for the Americas set out in this Declaration. 64. We commit to encouraging the participation of civil society in the design and execution of development policies and programmes by providing technical and financial assistance to strengthen and build their capacity to participate more fully in the Inter-American System. 66. We, the Heads of State and Government of the Americas, agree that this document shall be known as the ‘Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain’, and we hereby approve it on this the 19th day of April, in the year 2009. http://www.summit-americas.org/V_Summit/decl_comm_pos_en.pdf
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#1. To: All (#0)
This is a Draft that was made up before the election of the president. I believe that Obama or McCain would have signed this. The president has agreed to implement certain mandates that involve our domestic policies. He comes back and finds people to implement them. He directs our ministers to implement them. If you want to know were our policies are heading you need to read the Summit of The Americas. Everything from health care, education, finance, security, oil and energy, banking is laid out in the Summit of The Americas. The puppets then put these things that come from the UN into action. Then our presidents report on our progress of doing what they are told.
I read the article extensively. Did I miss anything about individual freedom and responsibility?
#3. To: buckeroo (#2)
When the president of a country goes into and signs mandates laid down basically by the United Nations with 32 (I believe) other countries and then comes back home to implement them by either passing legislation or directing his ministers to follow through on those mandates HE agreed upon I would pretty much say we are really living in a dictatorship, all the rest is just an illusion to satisfy the sheep.
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