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Avian
and human pandemic influenza
Statement
by Mr Markku Niskala, Secretary-General, at the International Pledging
Conference on Avian and Human Influenza, in Beijing, China.
17
January 2006 |
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Thank you for giving me the floor and an opportunity to contribute
to this important Conference.
We in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies are most grateful to the organisers of the Conference,
and especially to the Government of the People's Republic of
China, for concentrating the world's attention on the importance
of providing full donor support to addressing the threat of
a pandemic.
We are also most grateful to the Red Cross Society of China
for the work it has done in helping prepare us for this Conference.
The presence in our Delegation of Madame Jiang Yiman, who is
a member of the Governing Board of the International Federation
as well as the Vice President of the Society, will ensure that
other members of our governance are fully briefed on the priorities
underpinning the Conference. Through this, the key messages
from the Conference will reach our worldwide network of National
Societies and their national interlocutors, including all governments.
The pandemic threat is, as others have said, a threat which
could have unparalleled consequences for our planet. It could
not only cost the lives of many millions of people, but seriously
destabilise economies, communities and political systems, including
across borders in all parts of the world. Such a pandemic would
have national and local impact, with consequent damage to the
fabric of the international system within which we live today.
In the face of such a threat, the International Federation has
joined forces with other international organisations and with
the disaster response community to bring the strength of its
worldwide Red Cross and Red Crescent network into alignment
with the actions of others.
We deeply appreciate the decision of the Secretary-General of
the United Nations to appoint Dr David Nabarro as his Special
Representative on the issue. We also deeply appreciate the determined
action of WHO, the FAO, the European Commission, the World Bank
and other regional bodies to give this task top priority.
The International Federation has used its international personality
and resources and the resources of concerned National Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies to address the issue since September
2004, when we held our first awareness-raising exercises in
our Secretariat in Geneva.
Since then, we have worked to support National Societies responding
to the challenge posed by the pandemic threat. We have set up
special web-based tools for National Societies, and encouraged
them to provide their own tools in languages and formats which
work well at their own local levels.
This is, in our view, absolutely necessary as the real work
must be done at the community and village level where the risk
of contact with infected poultry or with contaminated clothing
or other equipment is highest for farmers, other people and
their families.
That is why we consider that governments should give the highest
priority to contact with their National Red Cross or Red Crescent
Society. The Societies are auxiliaries to the public authorities
in the humanitarian field, and should be included as partners
in the preparedness and response mechanism which all countries
should be establishing.
All experience with other public health emergencies shows that
effective governmental action requires an effective partnership
with organisations with community outreach and the capacity
to reach all people vulnerable to the risk without discrimination
and in the shortest possible time.
This is a lesson which is accepted as part of the ordinary management
of early warning for natural disasters, and is a cornerstone
of the preparatory work the International Federation is doing
for the forthcoming 3rd International Conference on Early Warning
(Bonn, 27-29 March, 2006).
The key message on this is, therefore, that warnings have to
come from, be part of and involve the communities affected themselves.
Their survival, and their livelihoods, are the social and economic
indicators by which success or failure must be judged.
It was because of this recognition of the role the Red Cross
Red Crescent National Societies should be given that we invited
Dr Nabarro to be a keynote speaker at the General Assembly of
the International Federation, held in Seoul in November 2005.
Dr Nabarro spoke eloquently of the dangers the world faces,
and the result was the adoption by the General Assembly of a
resolution which is aimed at the establishment of contact between
Ministries of Health and National Societies - in every country
- so that National Societies can be fitted into national planning
addressing the threat.
The role we envisage for National Societies and their tens of
millions of volunteers will be shaped by the national needs
of each country. But, at the very minimum, we want it to be
clearly understood that the Red Cross Red Crescent is willing
and able to play a significant part in the preventive measures
which must be undertaken, and later - if worst comes to worst
- in relief and response.
We are currently engaged in a mapping exercise of Red Cross
Red Crescent engagement status and activities which will enable
us to identify clearly areas of need and solutions for support.
Our global response plan will be based on several different
scenarios for a pandemic, but it includes active collaboration
with other agencies and with government, as well as such issues
as the prepositioning of stocks once vaccine is available and
the needs can be identified with clarity.
This involves a significant scaling-up of our capacity to coordinate
with other international organisations, governments, NGOs and
others at all levels.
We have drafted facts and recommendations to National Societies
on what should be done, and are creating a generic Red Cross
Red Crescent epidemic control guidance document for use by all
National Societies in partnership with others.
Very importantly, we are refining a specific communications
strategy concentrating on Outbreak Communication and Health
Promotion. We are now managing a series of telephone conferences
with persons from our Secretariat and specific National Societies
aimed at defining needs carefully and accurately and enabling
the dissemination of what needs to be said to the right people.
This is doubly important because we also recognise that the
nature of media presentations has the capacity to contribute
to panic situations in some countries and localities. All our
experience tells us that this must be avoided, yet realistic
and practical information needs to be provided to persons at
risk.
Our strategies also look to what is still an uncertain future.
It is difficult, for example, to predict how the strictly regulated
health systems in some developed countries will be able to cope
with the sudden emergence of the pandemic. Health care systems
are themselves likely to be at risk in many countries because
of extreme overload and the fact that their staff will also
be affected by the pandemic.
I will not go through a list of challenges, but will identify
some which have a specific likely match to Red Cross Red Crescent
capacity:
• Dissemination of key messages on sanitation and hygiene
to the whole affected population at the local level. This is
a central, perhaps THE central preventive measure.
• Provision of psychological support to victims, survivors
and their families.
• Support for the tracing of family members and survivors.
• Support for orphans and vulnerable children.
• Support to multi-hazard situations, where the pandemic
may interact with and exacerbate other disasters situations
and contribute to poverty with all its consequences - drought,
HIV/AIDS, floods, etc.
• Support, where possible, in cases of socio-economic
breakdown.
History shows us that these are some of the areas of activity
where governments can get special value from their National
Society. In many cases, governments have an understandable lack
of experience in outbreak management but our lessons have been
learned and shared in many outbreak management situations in
different parts of the world over the years. Recent examples
include Ebola, SARS, Dengue Fever in some countries and more.
The International Federation looks forward to the establishment
of a generously funded multidonor financing framework to address
this pandemic threat. Our own funding appeals are for the time
being contained in national appeals, but we are preparing for
a global appeal of our own.
In our view, however, the best approach is for the main agencies
to combine their resources to support a single fund approach
with a subsequent distribution to programs and projects on the
basis of agreed priority. Priorities should, of course, be agreed
after taking advice from the main stakeholders in the provision
of programs, including organisations which include community
representation in their own structures.
The conclusions of this meeting on the financing framework will
help guide our decision on how to meet the funding requirements
of National Societies and the International Federation Secretariat
in the longer term.
In conclusion, Mr Chairman, let me stress again the priority
the International Federation attaches to this issue, and to
the need for Ministries responsible for national planning to
include their country's National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society
in that planning. And, let me stress again the importance of
the simple preventive measure everyone should be sending forward:
hygiene and basic sanitation is the key.
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