Our children: the key to our common future.

摘要

Children are our best investment. What we do for the world's children, more than anything else we do, forms our legacy as political leaders in the world. Thus, I, as Prime Minister of Norway, call for courageous steps to protect our children, our common future.The new millennium has given mankind unprecedented opportunities. Today we are moving towards a tightly knit global community at an accelerating pace. What we do as individual countries and what we do together will determine the character of this emerging global community, its values, its welfare, and our future. Protecting our children is a moral and political imperative. It is also essential for socioeconomic development.As an economist, I am convinced by the research in recent years that has shown the economic benefits that accrue from investing in health in general, and in children's health in particular. Bloom and Williamson have shown that one-third to a half of the growth in east Asia from 1965 to 1990 could be attributed to reduced child mortality and its consequences.Bloom and colleagues also found that the economic returns from vaccination of children is a staggering 12-18% on an annual basis.2 Scientists have also estimated that, between 1965 and 1990, child morbidity and mortality rates contributed to stifle economic growth in Africa and to about half of the unfavourable gap in the economic growth rate between Africa arid the rest of the world.