2010 Lancet Lecture review: Helen Clark
Original source: UCL
"This year the UCL Lancet Lecture was given by Ms Helen Clark, the current Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and the first woman to hold that post within the UN. She was previously the Prime Minister of New Zealand, from 1999-2008.
Ms Clark expressed her longstanding interest in health issues. She also explained that in her role as health minister in the 1980s, she was particularly inspired by the Alma Ata Declaration, which promoted the need for universal primary care. A shared concern for both developed and developing countries, this approach is one which continues to be espoused by leading institutions.
Ms Clark clearly sees health as being more than just the care received in medical facilities, explaining in her lecture that it must be understood in a wider context. She said: 'Health is not something which comes from doctors' rooms, or hospital wards, or pharmacists' shelves. Health is a state of overall wellbeing... being able to live in a place which is at peace; a state where you have enough food and where you have access to education and services.'