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Brazil, UNDP agree on project to support public health in Haiti

United Nations Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark and Brazil’s Minister of Health José Gomes Temporão signed an agreement yesterday for a joint project to strengthen public health and tracking of infectious diseases in Haiti.

The Memorandum of Understanding, signed in Brasília during the first day of Helen Clark’s visit to Brazil, will help reinforce Haiti’s public health infrastructure and increase monitoring of the spread of diseases as part of the Caribbean country’s earthquake recovery efforts.

The partners will work together to foster knowledge exchange, conduct training and cooperate in other initiatives inside Haiti’s Ministry of Health and other governmental and non-governmental national institutions. Brazil has designated around 135 million Brazilian reais (US$76.7 million) for these activities.

Delivery of the project will rely on the expertise of UNDP’s global network, its long-established country programmes and its central role within the United Nations system.

Helen Clark leaves Brazil this Thursday evening, following meetings with Minister of Environment Izabella Teixeira to discuss environmental actions and the fight against climate change.

She will also meet Ambassador Celso Amorim, Minister of Foreign Affairs, with whom a strategic framework agreement will be signed to strengthen the partnership between UNDP and the Government of Brazil. It will focus on South-South cooperation issues and on the Millennium Development Goals.

At the end of the day, she will meet with representatives of Brazil’s feminist movement, including civil society and political leaders, to discuss gender equality and women’s empowerment.