Speech by Greg Wilcock, High Commissioner of Australia:
Seventh Regional Meeting of the South Asian Infant Feeding Research Network (SAIFRN)
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B)
26 August 2012
Prof. Dr. A. F. M. Ruhal Haque MP, Hon'ble Minister
Dr. Mozibur Rahman Fakir, MP, Hon’ble State Minister
Dr. S.K. Roy (Chairperson BBF & Country Representative, SAIFRN)
Dr. Iqbal Kabir (Vice Chairperson BBF & Country Coordinator, SAIFRN)
Dr. Michael Dibley (Associate Professor, Sydney University, Australia)
Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me to speak during this important event.
I am no expert on nutrition, nor am I on child nutrition specifically.
Only in being a father of two children under three do I feel qualified to say anything at all.
I know – as do many of you – the joy that comes from seeing one’s own children grow in stature, ability and confidence.
I know how lucky my boys are to have a mother whose attention to their needs comes not just from instinct, but from culture, one that draws generously from science.
And I know that that culture has been laid down over generations, forming a birthright for more newborns and infants, in Australia and worldwide.
It comes from the endless hard work of experts, whether scientists, nurses, political leaders, public servants, NGO workers – or mothers.
Australia – with all countries – knows that this hard work is essential to our collective strength and success.
That’s why we support this work through our development assistance – in Bangladesh, across South Asia, and globally.
Australia’s support for the South Asian Infant Feeding Research Network (SAIFRN) is an important part of this.
Through research and assessment of child nutrition problems in the region, through shaping and testing interventions, by using your findings to influence people and policy, SAIFRN is involved in more than nursing infants.
You’re helping nurse a new culture, and strengthening it.
Here in Bangladesh, for example, you have formed strong links with the Ministry of Health, the ICDDR, and BRAC on nutrient supplementation throughout pregnancy.
I’m told that further research on nutrient supplementation, and eventual scaling up of a program, could profoundly reduce infant and child mortality.
That objective stands for itself; it needs no further explanation.
Just as the work we support on child nutrition is about foundations and potential, so too is Australia’s wider development assistance for Bangladesh.
With Bangladesh and the international community, Australia has backed development in Bangladesh for forty years.
Forty years is not a long time in the life of a nation, but Bangladesh has made impressive development progress in that time.
Economic growth – at an average of 6 per cent annually over the past decade – has helped drive down poverty.
Bangladeshis are living longer, fewer young children are dying, and just as many girls as boys are enrolled in school.
The rest of us also benefit.
Australia, for one, finds in Bangladesh’s growth a bigger economic partnership. Australian cotton, for example, is finding its way to Bangladesh’s garments industry.
And increasingly, Bangladesh sends garments to us.
Australia, already thankful for Bangladesh’s partnership on a range of shared interests – peacekeeping, climate change, regional cooperation – considers that a stronger Bangladesh will be an even better neighbour.
Because we all benefit from Bangladesh’s growth, Australia will continue to support progress in health, education and governance in Bangladesh, as well as Bangladesh’s ability to manage disasters.
We are serious about this.
Australian aid to Bangladesh has tripled since 2007, to $100 million this financial year.
Bangladesh is now the 8th largest destination for Australian aid.
Australia is now the 6th largest bilateral donor to Bangladesh.
This growth in our aid budget flows from Australia’s continuing commitment to Bangladesh’s needs and potential, and our desire to reinforce Bangladesh’s own successes.
As we commit more aid to Bangladesh, so we do globally.
The growth in Australia’s overall aid budget arises from Australia’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, and to scaling up our aid effort so that it reaches 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI).
The Government has committed to reach this target by 2016-17.
With ambition, but also with humility, we are working with our partners to change things.
Just as you are working for change, through your hard work on advancing child nutrition in Bangladesh, and in South Asia more widely.
So I wish you a very fruitful meeting on a most important subject.
I know that you, as professionals – but also as parents – make a personal cause of your work.
Australia stands by your work. And, as a parent, I’m very thankful for it.
Thank you.