Global effort promotes health coverage

The Boao Forum for Asia and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday, pledging intensified partnerships to promote universal health coverage and wellbeing.

"The signing of the memorandum marks a new level of partnership between the two sides, which share much in common in promoting global health," Li Baodong, secretary-general of the forum, said during the signing ceremony, which was held during the ongoing Global Health Forum of Boao Forum for Asia in Qingdao, Shandong province.

The two sides will work together to carry out a series of projects in areas including disease prevention and reducing health risks, he said.

Elhadj As Sy, secretary-general of IFRC, said that through the partnership IFRC can leverage its advantage in its extensive global network, including in the Asia-Pacific region, to help promote health at the grassroots level.

The federation has 120,000 local branches in 38 countries in Asia-Pacific countries, with nine million volunteers in the region, he said.

In an interview with China Daily on Monday, Sy said China has been contributing more to the global humanitarian efforts, including health assistance, over the past decade.

In a recent effort, The Red Cross Society of China donated $200,000 through IFRC to Venezuela to supply medicine that it badly needs, he said.

China has also been helping fight the ongoing Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including sending medical teams to west Africa, to help contain Ebola, Sy said.

The RCSC has been partnering with many countries, including supporting blood safety programs in Pakistan, providing treatment to children with congenital heart disease in Afghanistan, deploying field and mobile hospitals in Syria and Iraq, and partnering on disaster management in Mongolia, he said.

Sy also said all countries need to intensify efforts to help people in need of humanitarian assistance.

"We have more natural disasters than ever before. They are more frequent, and they are more severe. We also have many conflicts that are man-made," he said. "The multitude of the needs in those countries are so big we also have to bring all the efforts, including the ones of the RCSC and the ones of the IFRC and all humanitarian organizations to a proper scale."