'The job is not done', Annan tells meeting on elimination of iodine deficiency

'The job is not done', Annan tells meeting on elimination of iodine 
deficiency

15 October – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called 
international efforts to make iodized salt available worldwide one of the 
successes of globalization, but warned that with 30 per cent of the world 
still without access to it, "The job is not done."

"One of the most pressing challenges of our times is to make globalization 
work for all people. And one way to move closer towards that goal is for 
governments, the UN system, private sector enterprises and civil society 
groups to forge partnerships around specific goals, and then work with 
creativity and determination to achieve them," Mr. Annan said in remarks to 
the High-Level meeting on the Elimination of Iodine Deficiency in Beijing, 
delivered by Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the UN Children's Fund 
(UNICEF).
http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=564

"A wonderfully concrete example of that approach is what has brought you all 
together for this conference in Beijing: the elimination of iodine 
deficiency, the world's single greatest cause of mental retardation, through 
universal salt iodization."

Mr. Annan said that since the World Summit for Children in 1990, "a 
tremendously effective public-private-UN partnership has led to more than two 
billion additional people having access to iodized salt.

"As a result, 90 million newborns are now protected from brain damage, and 
hundreds of millions of children are performing better in school," he said.

"Yet the job is not done. Thirty percent of the world's population still 
lacks access to iodized salt, leaving more than 40 million children at great 
risk. We owe it to them in particular, the future of our world, to ensure 
that they are born healthy and grow up with every chance to realize their 
full human potential," he said.


SOURCE: United Nations, New York