DISCURSOS - Rotary International

If some people still despair about the recent events in Pakistan, you must remind them that the
polio program has faced — and overcome — such barbaric acts multiple times already.
Just two years ago, our UN premises were destroyed in a terrorist attack that claimed three of
my staff, as well as UNICEF polio staff in Abuja. Five years ago, two of my staff were killed when
a suicide bomber attacked their vehicle in southern Afghanistan.
These are not the only attacks the polio program has faced over the past 20 years, and unfortunately,
I can’t assure you that they will be the last. But, I can assure you that just as we have
regrouped and restrategized to overcome such tragedies in every other setting, we will continue
do so in Pakistan.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have celebrated the great success of PolioPlus to date; we have seen
Rotarians overcome impossible odds to conquer polio in India; we have seen that awful events
like those in Pakistan are never the end of the eradication road, but rather very tragic bumps
along this very tough road.
Now let’s look at the opportunity in front of you, the 2013-14 Rotary district governors.
Ladies and gentlemen, the governors before you have brought Rotary to the brink of history, with
polio at its lowest level ever and in the least number of countries. But this is the most important
slide I am going to show you, because it shows that Rotary has brought you even closer than you
think.
This is a map of polio cases over the last four months, the last “high season” for polio. For the
first time in history, cases have stayed at a very low level during this high season, and remained
highly concentrated in just three “reservoir” areas.
Even more important, there was unprecedented improvement in the program in each of these
areas in 2012:
• This graphic shows you that in Kano and the surrounding states of northern Nigeria,
more children were reached than ever before. The red line shows that even in the worstperforming
districts, coverage is now approaching the levels needed to stop polio.
• In northwestern Pakistan, you see exactly the same picture — a picture that has been
largely sustained in the campaigns that are going on right now.
• And in south Afghanistan, although we can’t do the same kinds of studies, you can see
that the number of “inaccessible” children has been steadily falling during the past year
due to the new negotiations and tactics.
Ladies and gentlemen, I hate to add more pressure, but some really smart mathematical modelers
have analyzed these data and concluded that if you can maintain this momentum, polio could
stop globally in late 2013!
So your 2014 target should be easy!
In closing, I want to share with you one final, very big development that Rotary leaders must be
aware of. Because of the PolioPlus progress over the past 12 months, and a range of new developments
in polio vaccines and diagnostics, by April of this year, a new plan will be launched that
maps out a firm timeline for the completion of PolioPlus. This plan, which will be scrutinized by
the World Health Organization’s executive board next week, will require us to maintain our financial
support at nearly US$1 billion a year through 2018. But, most important, it signals an incredible
international confidence that the world — led by Rotary — can rapidly complete eradication
in the last few reservoirs.
International Assembly Speeches 2013 25