Vector Issue 12 - 2011

arthur
cheung
university of
queensland
ADVANCE global health ACHIEVE the MDGs
reflections on the 63 rd UN
DPI-NGO Conference
From 30 th August to 1 st September 2010,
Melbourne hosted the largest United Nations
conference in Australia’s history. It was the
third time the UN Department of Public Information
Non-Governmental Organisation (UN DPI-NGO)
Conference was held outside the UN headquarters
in New York, and the first time it was held in the
Southern Hemisphere.
The theme for the 63rd UN DPI-NGO Conference was
global health and achievement of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs): eradicate extreme
poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary
education, promote gender equality, reduce child
mortality, improve maternal health, combat
communicable diseases, ensure environmental
sustainability, and access to essential medicines.
With a large contingent of Australian youth in
delegations including those from the World Medical
Association and the International Federation of
Medical Students’ Associations, it promised to be a
great boost to the level of global health engagement
in Australia.
Reflecting on the conference brought mixed feelings.
There is a common belief that we must remain
positive about our experiences, to the extent that it
makes us uncomfortable to criticise that which needs
critique. Regardless, I shall give my honest thoughts
on the conference and its proceedings.
There are three main reasons why a productive
conference was vital. The first is that while we sat
in the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre,
people continued to die of preventable causes in
the world outside. So any diversion of the attention
of the world’s NGO leadership must be for a good
reason. The second is that it is extremely rare for
such a diverse and comprehensive range of NGOs to
come together for the express purpose of
vector FEB 2011 5
www.ghn.amsa.org.au