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MEETING AT OAS ADVANCES HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT
MINISTERS OF THE AMERICAS INITIATIVE

Senior international experts gathered at the Organization of American States (OAS) today to advance a process related to the Health and Environment Ministers of the Americas (HEMA) initiative that stemmed from the 2001 Quebec Summit of the Americas mandate.

In opening remarks to participants at the one-day meeting, Ray Edwards, Director General of Policy and Planning for Health Canada’s Healthy Environment and Consumer Safety Branch, explained the four-fold objective of Thursday’s session: to build awareness of this major hemispheric health and environment initiative; present fifteen project initiatives identified by the Task Force as priority activities; explore possible sources of financial and technical support for priority activities; and share experiences in health and environment work by international organizations.

Edwards described the event as “a very important one as we build momentum towards the next Summit of the Americas.” He underscored the meeting’s focus on health and environment initiatives in each participating organization, to explore “opportunities for synergy” and collaboration on projects the hemisphere’s health and environment ministers have endorsed as potential activities to support the HEMA process. “Today we’re talking about priorities and goals and specific projects that meet those priorities and goals and fulfill the spirit of the meeting that took place in 2002,” he added, referring to the first meeting of the health and environment ministers in March 2002.

In an interview, Health Canada’s Edwards cited waste water management, air quality, indoor air quality, improving information technology and better public education among those priority issues. “The influence of the environment is very much a public health issue, and by addressing some of those environmental factors we could really make contributions in improving the health of people in the Americas.”

Scott Vaughan, Director of the OAS Unit of Sustainable Development and Environment—which hosted the gathering—welcomed the participants. He spoke about the collaboration involving the OAS and key partners—Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)—and the effort to identify an appropriate division of labor, based on the comparative strengths of the partners, to move the process forward. He spoke as well about efforts to look at “some concrete deliverables” from this process and referred to the plans to involve civil society, given their important role.

Meanwhile, Director of Environmental Promotion and Sustainable Development in Argentina’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development Andrea Brusco—who co-chaired today’s meeting—stressed the importance her government places on this international project. She stressed the action-oriented character of this meeting that is intended to “see how we can implement an agenda that the health and environment ministers developed together to improve the quality of life for our people in the Americas.”

Argentina is slated to host the next Summit of the Americas in 2005 and, Brusco noted, “We hope to host the next meeting of ministers of health and environment ahead of that Summit.”

Besides OAS representatives and member state diplomats, the meeting drew participants from such other international organizations as PAHO, UNEP, World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). UNEP was represented by Ricardo Sanchez, Regional Director for Latin American and the Caribbean, while Luiz Augusto Cassanha Galvão, Area Manager for Sustainable Development and Environmental Health, represented PAHO.

Reference: E-022/04