Statement by H.E. Dr. Udval Natsag, Minister of Health of Mongolia
for the annual event “Mongolian Women in Business 2013”,
Brussels, Belgium
Thursday, March 7, 2013
My Dear Fellow Countrywomen,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Distinguished Guests,
On the occasion of the annual event “Mongolian Women in Business 2013”, I am delighted to convey my sincere congratulations and best wishes, on behalf of all women in the health sector of Mongolia and my own name, to all distinguished guests, women of different sectors, speakers and my friends who are taking part in this event. It has been my honor to have been invited to this important event. However, due to prior commitments, it is with regret that I am unable to join my fellow women at this event.
Ladies, allow me to continue wishing my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Association for the Development of Mongolian Women in Europe for organizing this important event, in collaboration with European Parliament and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and London Stock Exchange Group-Borsa Italiana.
As we know, Mongolian economy is rapidly growing in recent years mainly due to its mining industry. However, it is becoming evident that improving economic prospects for the country is not always reflected into improved health and wellbeing of its people. As of today, 39% of the Mongolian population is living below the UN defined poverty line. This makes us to think about what we can do to contribute to the development of the social sector as women of this beautiful country. Women are the “head accountant” in every household in Mongolia and perhaps elsewhere and they take care of the entire family, even though they are not considered to be the head of the household in my country.
But I continue to believe that we, as women, can play crucial role in making decisions on the very important socio-economic issues, addressing equal distribution of the wealth and improving the health and well being of people. Most of us have taken a good care of ourselves, and our families. And that leads me to believe that women can potentially do much more outside of their household business and take even good care of the people in need and the society in a broader sense.
For this and other reasons, this event promotes empowering of Mongolian women in the leadership, to support networking between Mongolian women in Europe and Mongolia, enhance cooperation among Mongolian women and help to create business opportunities for them through a productive networking community.
Now, moving on to the health status of Mongolia, the country has made significant progress in attaining the health-related Millennium Development Goals. Maternal and child mortality rates have dropped significantly. Access to affordable and safe reproductive health commodities for women has been improved considerably in the recent years even though we still have some unmet needs.
On the other hand, non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and injuries have become the leading causes of death. Today, nine out of every ten people in Mongolia die from non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases and one out of every five people dies from cancer.
Taking into account the burden of non-communicable diseases, the Government has implemented a number of national programs since 1990s. However, these national programs had poor linkage between one another, and focused on a very limited number of risk factors and diseases. As such, no significant improvement and progress were made in terms of integrated system of surveillance and control.
Ladies, despite our progress already made and the efforts we continue to make, there are several challenges remain to be addressed. They include the lack of adequate infrastructure, limited resource, unhealthy urbanization, and inadequate collaboration and coordination among government and non-government agencies and the private sector.
This is particularly true in terms of integrated management of non-communicable diseases. Non-communicable diseases require multi-sectoral approaches and efforts. Therefore, we must combine our efforts and ensure operational coordination among different layers of organizations, agencies, and private entities to avoid duplications and overlapping.
In this regard, Ladies, I would like to note that the Ministry of Health stands fully committed to collaborate with fellow Mongolian Women in Europe in tackling above challenges and thus, bring greater health to the population.
Lastly, I would like to wish a very happy International Women’s Day to all of you and wish you the best of health, prosperity and success!
Thank you!
Leave a comment