WHO on Health and Sustainable Development

Ten years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the “Earth Summit,” held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, the United Nations will convene another summit of world governments and other major actors to assess global change during the last decade. The meeting will be held in Johannesburg, 2–11 September 2002. One of the reports prepared for the 30 April–2 May 2001 session of the preparatory committee for the Johannesburg meeting discusses developments in global health. The report, prepared by the World Health Organization with “contributions from other United Nations agencies and international organizations” and formally presented as a Report of the Secretary‐General (E/CN. 17/2001 /PC/6), is reproduced below in full. It notes some of the remarkable gains in health during the past decade and, in greater detail, enumerates the major problem areas and outlines future trends and challenges. The document is available at « http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/health.htm#doc ».