Bernard Pécoul, Executive Director of DNDi, at the UN: “the time to wake up is now”.
Speaking next, Mr. Pécoul asked whether Governments had contracted sleeping sickness, as public sector investments in neglected diseases had been abandoned. “We are far from finding solutions to these challenges, even if some Governments or some philanthropists have started to respond to this issue.” Patients were still dying from the vicious cycle of poverty and disease. It was time to act, as the poor were the most affected by economic crisis.
Press Briefing
Speaking next, Mr. Pécoul asked whether Governments had contracted sleeping sickness, as public sector investments in neglected diseases had been abandoned. “We are far from finding solutions to these challenges, even if some Governments or some philanthropists have started to respond to this issue.” Patients were still dying from the vicious cycle of poverty and disease.
Press Release
If you would like to read the Press Release, please click here.
Summary
Read text summary “Raising the Profile of Neglected Tropical Diseases”.
Clinton: Keynote Address
View Bernard Pécoul’s presentation.
Clinton: Keynote Address
Listen to the closing keynote address by President Bill Clinton about philanthropy and also about DNDi.
Starting from minute 3:31:
(transcript of a part of his keynote address)
But let’s begin by acknowledging that, as far away as we remain from reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in maternal and child health, and in untreated tropical diseases especially, there has been a staggering amount of progress made in this decade. And part of it is from the concentration of donor efforts, public and private, through the Global Fund, through GAVI, through GAIN, through the Drugs for Neglected Tropical [sic] Diseases initiative, Malaria No More, through UNITAID, which I have the honor of working with. So the question is can we sustain what we are doing, and we know we have to do more, how will we do more in a difficult time, and what arguments will we make or devices will we use to broaden the number of people who are part of this philanthropic community. First, let’s talk about giving, and giving from the private sector. Part of it is money, part of it is organizational skills, part of it may be materials, but I think that the most important think I’d like to say is that I expect that much philanthropic activity will be have to be financed in a different way going forward, and that there will be a financial restructuring in the NGO movement that roughly parallels the restructuring of financing of the regular economies in a lot of wealthy countries that have suffered financial collapse, and that parallels the restructuring of political financing in my country, where we’ve been through several cycles now where Internet donations that amount to a lot of money even though individually they are relatively small, have become more and more important. But in the history of this, the three most important Internet campaigns have been the three that were most prominent this year: President Obama’s, Hillary’s and Senator McCain’s. In other words, it is the tide of history.
Photos
Picture 1: Bernard Pécoul speaking
Picture 2: Bernard Pécoul showing poster
ECOSOC Website
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