Pacific Island peoples’ health focus of meeting
HealthAssociate Health Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga will travel to Fiji tomorrow to attend the 11th Pacific Health Ministers Meeting.
The biennial meeting will bring together ministers and health officials from Pacific nations and areas for three days.
“I look forward to meeting my counterparts from across the Pacific so that we may discuss regional health issues and consider ways of improving the health of all Pacific peoples,” Mr Lotu-Iiga says.
“Many of the biggest health problems in the Pacific are also faced in New Zealand, and more specifically by our own Pacific communities, who represent 6.9 per cent of our population.
“Working together across the Pacific region and supporting our neighbours is fundamental to ensuring better health outcomes for Pacific families and communities, both in New Zealand and overseas,” Mr Lotu-Iiga says.
New Zealand is encouraged by the progress made by Pacific countries in improving health outcomes for their people but is conscious that there is more work still to be done.
The first such meeting of Pacific health ministers was held in Fiji in 1995 in response to rapidly changing social and economic conditions affecting quality of life and health in the Pacific.
Mr Lotu-Iiga will travel to Fiji on 14 April and return on 18 April.