Bangladesh supports equity-based approach to fight child poverty
Hasina calls for effective implementation of strategy to make the MDGs a reality for the world's children
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has lent her government's unequivocal support to Unicef's equity-based approach for fighting child poverty, urging effective implementation of the strategy to make the MDGs a reality for the world's children.
Addressing a Unicef-sponsored event on the sidelines of the UN Summit at the UN Headquarters on Wednesday, Hasina also called for more low-cost techniques to ensure that the equity approach has the right kind of tools at its disposal.
The equity approach, which she said conforms to the principle of 'Intergenerational Equity' first agreed upon by world leaders in 1992, focuses on the fact that in the push to reach development goals by their 2015 deadline, the poorest of the poor are falling further and further behind.
On low cost techniques, Hasina said Unicef could mobilise the international community, governments and local NGOs to use low-cost techniques as was done in the 1980s with growth monitoring, oral re- hydration for children's diarrhoea, breastfeeding, and immunisation against six deadly childhood diseases.
Hasina referred to a study in The Lancet on the effects of healthcare payments on poverty, which indicates 2.7 percent of the population or 78 million people in 11 countries, including Bangladesh, end up with less than one dollar per day after paying for healthcare.
She mentioned that Oral Re-hydration Therapy (ORT), termed by leading medical journal The Lancet as “potentially the most important medical advance of the 20th century”, was discovered while treating cholera in the refugee camps during Bangladesh's War of Liberation in 1971.
The PM also called for a strong commitment and collective support to achieve the goals set for the children.
“Let us collectively strive and succeed in translating the promises into reality,” she said.
Hasina went on to stress enhanced strategic partnerships for Unicef with the private sector, civil society and NGOs, which would be useful in responding to humanitarian emergencies, as well as times of peace.
Bangladesh assumes the presidency of Unicef this year, followed by the vice-presidency next year, and the prime minister promised her government's all-out support to facilitate Unicef's implementation of its mandate over the coming period.
To end, the PM evoked a famous verse from national poet Rabindranath Tagore, who said “Every time a child is born, it renews my faith that God has not given up on man.”
CNN anchor and reporter Jim Clancy moderated the programme while the other panelists are Slovenia President Dr Danilo Turk, chief minister of Human Rights Secretariat of the Presidency of Brazi Paulo Vannuchi, Rockfeller Foundation President Dr Judith Rodin, Unicef Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow and Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake were also present.
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