Statement from UNDP Administrator Helen Clark to the ICORD meeting, Cape Town, 20 October 2016
ICORD is very pleased to announce this statement on rare diseases and the development agenda, presented by Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, to the ICORD conference in Cape Town, South Africa, on 20 October 2016.
It is very significant as the first official statement from such a high level in global health and development affairs, about the needs of rare diseases. It is also significant for the important principles it states:
- That rare diseases are an important part of the development agenda and the sustainable development goals.
- That no country can claim to have achieved universal healthcare if it has not adequately and equitably met the needs of those with rare diseases.
- That greater investments are required from governments to address the absence of adequate market incentives for unmet health needs such as rare diseases.
- That sustainable development requires whole of government and society responses, and ICORD as a multi-stakeholder society, offers a model of the collaboration which is needed to achieve important health-related targets in the SDGs.
Click on the links to read the statement, in English or in Spanish.