Showing vision - looking for will

The WDF birthday was used to look ahead to find solutions. “Like all five year olds, we are very excited today”, said Managing Director of WDF, Dr. Anil Kapur, in his welcome at The World Diabetes Foundation’s (WDF) official celebration of its five years of existence held on the 28th of August in Denmark.
	Mr. Lars Rebien Sørensen member of    the WDF Board of directors received Her Royal Highness Princess Benedikte and Her Excellency, the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation, Mrs. Ulla Tørnæs.
Dr. Kapur thanked the esteemed guests, HRH Princess Benedikte, the Patron of WDF, and Her Excellency, the Danish Minister for Development Cooperation, Mrs. Ulla Tørnæs for accepting the invitation to join the celebration along with other distinguished guests within the development and diabetes communities, who had gathered in Copenhagen from all over the world. “We meet not only to celebrate but to discuss how health systems in the developing world can be strengthened to help them deal with the double disease burden and so we have with us today a highly qualified and experienced panel” he added. Mr Quentin Cooper, moderator and host of Material World, the most listened to program on BBC Radio 4, warned the panellists that they cannot hide behind an excuse that they miss an expert from a particular area. He said; “between the experts on the high table we have all the knowledge and experience to really address the issue so we will explore everything possible.”  And explore they did for almost two hours.  Danish development assistance focuses on health By her presence, Mrs. Ulla Tørnæs demonstrated the successful partnership that WDF has created with the Danish International Development Assistance (Danida). Mrs. Tørnæs explained that Denmark does not target specific diseases like diabetes when supporting the developing countries. But, according to the Minister, capacity building in health systems is an effective means to deal with diabetes as well as infectious diseases burdening the developing world: “All partners - including governments, donors and private foundations - must work efficiently together and coordinate efforts in true partnership if we want to improve the health of poor people in developing countries. The Memorandum of Understanding between The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Danida) and the World Diabetes Foundation demonstrates a successful model of such partnership", she said. Referring to the story of Shabani, a sixteen year-old Tanzanian boy with type 1, whose story was featured in the film “Praying for a Future” shown prior to the panel discussion, the Minister said  “access to education and electricity is also relevant to improving health systems”. Shabani never went to school, and not only was he unable to read his own glucose levels and draw up insulin; he had no refrigerator and no electricity to help him store his insulin. She underlined that Danish development assistance needs to be broad based and that health is, and will be, an important part of Danish development aid, but such assistance will increasingly be directed at improving health systems and thereby supporting the three health-related UN Millennium Development Goals. Challenging the double disease burden Dr Gojka Roglic from WHO lamented on the low awareness about the burden of diabetes and other NCDs, “Diabetes kills as many people as HIV/Aids yet resources to tackle the two problems are very different”. When asked why doesn’t WHO do something about it? She explained “WHO acts and prioritises resources based on the desire of member states.” At this Quentin Cooper the moderator chipped in “Diabetes is a non communicable disease but that is no reason to not communicate about it”.
	Distinguished members from WDF, WHO, IDF, World Bank and the Danish government assembled at the WDF anniversary on 28th August 2007.
One of the panellists, Member of the WDF Board, Professor Ib Bygbjerg asked rhetorically: "what does diabetes and the chronic diseases have in common with infectious diseases? – Well it is the same people that suffer from the diseases", reminding us that the suffering from the double disease burden hits both  individuals as well as governments in the developing world. The governments will suffer, said Dr. Anne Johansen, Senior Health Specialist, World Bank: “Diabetes is not only here to stay, it is an increasing problem in all countries”, she said, giving the example of Australia, where diabetes is recognised to affect the work force to a degree where corporations are forced to take action. Health systems in low and middle income countries have to be prepared to simultaneously deal with the increasing burden as well as to prevent further growth. Lars Rebien Sørensen, CEO and President of Novo Nordisk A/S and one of the founding fathers of the World Diabetes Foundation exchanged his views on establishing the Foundation. “Creating WDF has not been an act of philanthropy. Having a corporate social responsibility within your company is great business”, and wished that other corporate entities, such as the food industry, the financial sector and the entertainment industry, would realise what an  important part they can play in inducing a healthy lifestyle – without loosing business. What to do now? - A wish list “We must make governments realise that diabetes is becoming an epidemic, but not to let them see it as an isolated problem. Diabetes is a marker of a new kind of disease burden; where diabetes is on the rise   today, chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) will surely follow within the next 5-10 years”, said Prof. Ib Bygbjerg, who explained that the prevention efforts that WDF aims to support targeting diabetes will also prevent new cases of related NCDs like stroke, hypertension and heart attacks in the developing countries. The funding agencies from the developed world can be part of the solution, as they control the development in the poor countries, said anthropologist and Member of the WDF Board, Ms. Ida Nicolaisen; “We, in the developed countries have the power to address the problem, in developing countries the problem is first of all not recognised and at the same time poor people in poor countries are hit the hardest”. Healthy development President of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Prof Martin Silink reminded the audience that today 50% of the world’s population live in the cities; “If we could only make governments think in terms of “healthy urbanisation” creating spaces within the growing cities for sports, for people to walk and ride bikes. We always think of development as a negative factor, but what about turning the development around”, he said, thinking of the possibility of creating alternatives to the typical westernised and unhealthy lifestyle that follows when living in a city to a “healthy development”. A journalist wanted to know what the diabetes community would do if they was to be given the same financial support as infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. WDF Chairman Pierre Lefèbvre explained that essentially, lack of money is not the greatest problem, more urgently the lack of political will in developing countries is an important factor that needs to be addressed.  His remark elegantly summarized the conclusion of the panel discussion: If we could convince the governments of the magnitude of the diabetes problem today and in the future, they would be able themselves - within their systems - to address the diabetes challenge, and do it with limited support from the developed world. On the other hand, the governments, multinational companies and funding agencies of the developed world can and shall help the developing world in strengthening the systems and create awareness.
Panellists were: Prof. Ib Bygbjerg, International Health, Immunology & Microbiology Dr. Gojka Roglic, Technical Officer, WHO Mr. Lars Rebien Sørensen, CEO, Novo Nordisk A/S Her Excellency, Mrs Ulla Tørnæs, Minister for Development Cooperation Prof. Pierre Lefèbvre, Chairman, WDF Board of Directors Ms Ida Nicolaisen, Vice Chair, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Prof. Martin Silink, President, International Diabetes Federation Dr. Anne Johansen, Senior Health Specialist, World Bank

This page was last updated 9-3-2007 by jrb.wdf