Audrey Azoulay: Health, cross-cutting component that fully engages UNESCO's mandate

Health is a cross-cutting component that fully engages the entire mandate of UNESCO, the Director-General of the UN agency, Audrey Azoulay, said on Wednesday in Marrakech.

In a message broadcast during the opening session of the first African Conference on Health Risk Reduction, placed under the High Patronage of King Mohammed VI, Azoulay explained that “health is not only a matter of science, but it also has a very strong social dimension and affects all our ways of life.”

“This is why UNESCO is involved through this mandate and first of all through education. Being in good health, having the right gestures of nutrition and prevention, it is learned,” she said, stressing the need to put health at the heart of school life.

She explained that “this is the purpose of our commitment always with the World Health Organization (WHO) with Member States”, noting that “one of the largest programs of UNESCO in Africa is thus on a central issue of public health which is the leading cause of school dropout, namely unwanted early pregnancies.”

“We transmit through education the importance of regular physical activity. This is why we support our Member States to better integrate sports into public policies,” added Azoulay, while highlighting the role of artists to carry this education and raise awareness of health issues, especially during the pandemic.

“We have also in this pandemic measure the importance of a general scientific culture and scientific information that is reliable,” said the Director-General of UNESCO, explaining that this is why “we have trained with the European Union more than 30,000 journalists in 160 countries to combat misinformation on the Covid.”

“There remains a central issue to which UNESCO also responds and that is the impact of climate change on human health,” she noted.

Azoulay expressed her warm thanks to the Kingdom of Morocco and King Mohammed VI for the organization of this important Conference which deals with a relevant and topical issue.

The opening session of this Conference was marked by a Message addressed by the Sovereign to the participants, which was read by the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Khalid Aït Taleb.

Initiated by the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and the Moroccan Association of Addictive Medicine and Pathologies (MAPA), this international conference, which continues until November 18, brings together African and international experts to reflect on aspects of health in broad concepts of public health policies, but also to build the pillars of health in the future, rethinking health in its organic, psychological, economic, social and environmental aspects, working jointly for a common African health through also culture, education and teaching.