Yesterday in New York, on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Emanuela Del Re, attended an event on universal health coverage along with the representatives of the other 193 UN Member States.<\/p>\n
The aim of the Meeting, which closed with the adoption of a Political Declaration, is to relaunch political ambition and accelerate progress towards universal health coverage with a view to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal No. 3 (SDG 3).<\/p>\n
In her address on behalf of Italy, the Deputy Minister confirmed our Country\u2019s commitment to contribute to achieving SDG 3. \u201cHealth must be considered as a global public good,\u201d said Del Re. She went on to underscore how health is the Italian Development Cooperation service\u2019s priority area of action at multilateral level and recalled Prime Minister Conte\u2019s announcement regarding Italy\u2019s contribution to the Global Fund against HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the next three years. She added: \u201cAlso at bilateral level, universal health coverage is Italy\u2019s priority action, focused on Less Developed Countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.\u201d Del Re then announced that, at her own initiative, Italy committed to raise awareness at international level on diarrhoea in children, which the World Health Organisation recognises to be the second cause of death among children under 5 in poor Countries. \u201cItaly calls for urgent action to facilitate information and educational campaigns, including possibly establishing a dedicated International Day and requests the allocation of financial resources to defeat this deadly disease through adequate policies,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n