“You have something we need.” Dr. Paul Farmer @PIH addresses @worldbank about #Mirebalais #Haiti
Paul Farmer of Partners in Health and the UN with Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, and Hasan Tuluy World Bank's VP for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Speaking on a panel at the World Bank along with Partners in Health co-founder Dr. Jim Kim, now President of the Bank, Dr.Paul Farmer stressed that pills and prevention are not enough to end disease because it is inseparable from poverty and that investing in one sector divorced from others will not end that poverty. Rather, investing in “integrated primary systems” — particularly via strengthening public insitutions in health care, education and economic development — are essential. He embraced the World Bank’s mission to build systems at all levels to end poverty.
President Kim, who was first introduced to Haiti by Farmer, responded, “Let me suggest that we at the World Bank should make it a part of our collective consciousness that we move States out of being fragile and on the path to growth and prosperity.”
Farmer addressed the World Bank in part to seek the Bank’s support for the National Teaching Hospital under construction in Mirebalais, Haiti, a partnership between Partners in Health and the Ministry of Health of Haiti. “Farmer acknowledged that much more remains to be done to make this project fully transformational in the long run, and speaking about the Bank’s potential role he said: ‘You have something that we need. Help us build these systems so that we then can chart progress in all sectors,’ from health and education, to finance and agriculture.”
For the full story from the World Bank’s newsletter see:
Note: My husband, Jim Ansara, is overseeing the construction of the hospital in Mirebalais and I serve on the Board of Trustees of Partners in Health.