The three-day conference, which was held from August 30 to September 1, “aims to promote ways in which civil society can work together to create the conditions which contribute to improve global health.”
The conference had more than 2,000 participants from 70 countries. Dr. Caleb Otto represented Palau in the conference.
According to a press statement from United Nations, Kenya, Palau, Sri Lanka, and Australia, engaged in a roundtable debate entitled “Achieving the MDGs in Our Changing World” moderated by Lindy Joubert, Director of the inaugural United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Observatory, Multi-Disciplinary Research on the Arts.
The press statement added that the discussion was “premised from the perspective that developing countries, in particular, are experiencing swift demographic transitions with sharp rises in the populations of young people and older persons, increased urbanization and globalization.”
Also talked about in the roundtable discussion were issues on migration, environmental deterioration and climate change.
A point made at an earlier roundtable that climate change concerns were not very important to Pacific islanders because they had not contributed much to the problem was corrected by Dr. Otto, saying “Chopping down trees or treading on corals irresponsibly caused environmental degradation. And in almost every Pacific island nation, there were many, many cars and other vehicles, which polluted the air.”
Dr. Otto acknowledged that achievements of the MDG or Millennium Development Goals had been “pretty slow” in the region.
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