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by Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland

Fifteen years ago, the UN Commission on Environment and Development broke new ground by placing people at the heart of the development process.

Now, a commission consisting of eighteen of the world's leading economists and health experts - including two Nobel Prize Winners and several former finance ministers - has presented a report which provides a new global blueprint for development to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor and stimulate growth in the world's least developed countries.

The report, Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development, again stresses the need to place people at the centre of all we do.

More directly, it sees investment in human resources as crucial to overcome the poverty trap of the least developed countries. It sees health as a key factor in economic growth and social development, as a prerequisite for increases in productivity, and for more equitable and effectively functioning societies.

Our world is intent on combating the few who are bent on sowing terror and death in our midst. But we must be equally intent on making life better for the hundreds of millions of poor who do not get their fair share of the world's wealth and opportunities.

We must do so because it contributes to a safer world for all. But most of all, we must do so because it is right. Poverty steals hope, breeds despair and provokes frustration.

Promoting health is a key part of the response. It contributes directly to human security. At the same time, by focusing on global, as well as local, realities, it will help bridge the poverty gap.

Millions of people die every year and millions more suffer from diseases which are easily preventable or treatable, because they - or the countries they live in - are too poor.

The Commission's report shows how little it takes and how much can be gained by making sure that all countries get a basic, functioning health system. For $34 per person per year, basic health services can be provided. That, however, is three times the $11 per person per year the poorest countries spend today.

Added up, it means an additional $66 billion needs to be spent on health each year by 2015. Half of this should be provided by developing countries from their own budgets, while the other half should come from increased developing assistance from industrialized countries.

That equals only a penny for every ten dollars of the gross domestic product of the world's rich countries.

The gains will be massive. The commissioners have calculated that eight million lives would be saved each year and that the annual economic benefits would amount to $360 billion a six-fold return on the investment!

Will the developing countries be able to absorb such an increase in funds and use it effectively? Dr. Sachs and his fellow commissioners, which include Dr. Mahmohan Singh - the former Finance Minister of India and former Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi, believe they will.

The key to sustained action and meaningful results will be to ensure that health becomes a priority at the highest levels of political leadership.

Political leaders act when they see their populations demand it, and when they see a global trend emerging. Over the past two years, we have seen an increased political commitment to health around the globe. But it is only a beginning. We can all contribute to maintain this momentum.

The Commission recommends that each country sets up its own commissions on macroeconomics and health, which can outline the concrete steps needed to strengthen the health system and scale up well-known, effective interventions against the main diseases of poverty.

The WHO will work with countries as they pursue the ideas in this Report. We will incorporate the Report's analyses and conclusions into relevant international, regional and national events. We will also encourage countries to act on the Report through pursuing Commission-type work within existing forums, or through establishing their own National Commissions on Economics and Health.

A drastic scaling up of investments in health for the world's poor will not only save millions of lives, but also produce enormous economic gains.

We have the resources and know-how to save millions of lives, turn the tide on global ill-health and poverty and harness global economic development.

The countries of the world cannot afford to pass up this opportunity for effective action to benefit future generations and safeguard the health of the people and the planet. Dr. Brundtland, a former Prime Minister of Norway, is the Director-General of the World Health Organization.

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