Secretary-General to focus on global health during upcoming visit to Atlanta

Global health will be the focus of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Atlanta, Georgia, next week, part of his ongoing tour of major cities in the United States.

Mr. Ban will be convening a meeting at the Carter Center with the Elders – a small group of world figures ranging from civil society leaders to past heads of State – on critical global health priorities, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters.

Participants in the meeting will include top UN officials, philanthropists, and global health leaders from the private sector, non-governmental organizations and academia. Mr. Ban also plans to tour the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While in Atlanta, the Secretary-General is scheduled to attend a luncheon hosted by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue.

He will also join Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin in viewing the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Collection at the Robert W. Woodruff Library.

In addition, he plans to visit CIFAL Atlanta, a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the UN Institute for Training and Research, and attend a luncheon with the Atlanta business community.

Since taking office in January 2007, the Secretary-General has travelled to San Francisco and Chicago, where he saw first-hand how these two major cities are tackling climate change, as well as to Washington D.C.

In February this year he made his first visit to the state of Texas, where he participated in the William Waldo Cameron Forum on Public Affairs at the Bush Presidential Library, located in College Station.