Remarks by Ambassador Carol Rodley at USAID’s Asia and Middle East Health Managers’ Conference

October 5, 2009: Le Meridien Hotel, Siem Reap

I’m pleased to see so many senior health managers from USAID’s Asia and Middle East bureaus here in Cambodia for this important conference.

In an address in May to mark his new global health initiative, President Obama said that we cannot afford to confront preventable illnesses in isolation.  As the president noted, an outbreak in Indonesia can reach Indiana within days – or as the H1N1 virus is demonstrating, just as easily travel the other way, from Indiana to Indonesia – demanding that we take an integrated approach to global health.

Conferences like this one are important tools for putting the President’s vision into action.  Although you are based in different countries, each with its own on-the-ground reality, many of the issues and challenges you face are connected. This conference will allow you to share best practices that will assist you when you return to your respective missions. I hope that it will also help you form new relationships – and strengthen existing ones – that will stay with you long after you’ve left Siem Reap.

The strategic importance of Asia and the Middle East to the United States and the new Administration is evident.  From the emergence of China and India as world players to the ongoing stabilization and reconstruction of Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States is – and no doubt will remain – committed to engaging with the countries and peoples of these regions.A key component of U.S. engagement with Asia and the Middle East is the work that you do every day to improve the health of the millions of residents of these regions. The United States is the world leader in addressing global health needs.  We’ve invested over $45 billion in global health this decade, and much of that money goes to countries in Asia and the Middle East. With this investment, the United States has helped save millions of lives from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

In Cambodia, I’m proud to say, we have partnered with the government to cut the HIV prevelance rate in half from 2% in 1998 to less than 1%, a significant achievement in the global fight against the disease. All of you have similar achievements to be proud of, and for this I congratulate you. However, despite this monumental progress, 26,000 children around the world continue to die every day from extreme poverty and preventable diseases.

In response, the President’s 2010 budget will focus on broader global health challenges, including child and maternal health, family planning, and neglected tropical diseases, while still providing robust funding for HIV/AIDS. The President’s initiative will take a more integrated approach to improving global health. Key features include its women-centered approach, its emphasis on host-country ownership, and the importance of improving entire health systems. The initiative will invest $63 billion cumulatively through 2014, which is a very clear indication of U.S. commitment to, as President Obama put it, “saving lives, reducing suffering, and supporting the health and dignity of people everywhere.”

It will provide USAID programs around the world with the the resources they need to make an impact. As impressive as that $63 billion is, though, it is the work that you do every day as health specialists that will ultimately make the difference. Whether you are analyzing the latest HIV/AIDS data in your country, monitoring the work of a newly built hospital in the field, or, as you are doing here today, meeting with your colleagues to better integrate approaches and share best practices, the work you do is saving lives.

You are making a difference for millions of people, and you are performing an extraordinary service on behalf of the U.S. government and the American people. Thank you, and I wish you an informative and fruitful series of discussions over the next few days.