Primary health care, including health system strengthening

WHO Executive Board 124th Session EB124.R8 - Agenda item 4.5
26 January 2009

Available online

English: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB124/B124_R8-en.pdf

Spanish: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB124/B124_R8-sp.pdf

French: http://www.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB124/B124_R8-fr.pdf

“………Welcoming The world health report 2008,1 published on the thirtieth anniversary of the international conference of Alma-Ata, that identifies four broad policy directions for reducing health inequalities and improving health for all: tackling health inequalities through universal coverage, putting people at the centre of care, integrating health into broader public policy, and providing inclusive leadership for health and also welcoming the Commission on Social Determinants of Health’s final report;2

Reaffirming the need to build sustainable national health systems, strengthen national capacities, and fully honour financing commitments made by national governments and their development partners, as appropriate, in order to better fill the resource gaps in the health sector;

Reaffirming also the need to take concrete, effective and timely action, in implementing all agreed commitments on aid effectiveness and to increase the predictability of aid, while respecting recipient countries’ control and ownership of their health system strengthening, more so given the potential effects on health and health systems of the current international financial and food crises and of climate change;

Strongly reaffirming the values and principles of primary health care, including equity, solidarity, social justice, universal access to services, multisectoral action and community participation as the basis for strengthening health systems;

1. URGES Member States:

(1) to ensure political commitment at all levels to the values and principles of the Declaration of Alma-Ata, keep the issue of strengthening health systems based on the primary health care approach high on the international political agenda, and take advantage, as appropriate, of health-related partnerships and initiatives relating to this issue, particularly to support achievement of the Millennium Development Goals;

(2) to accelerate action towards universal access to primary health care by developing comprehensive health services and by developing national equitable and sustainable financing mechanisms, mindful of the need to ensure social protection and protect health budgets in the context of the current international financial crisis;

(3) to put people at the centre of health care by adopting, as appropriate, delivery models focused on the local and district levels that provide comprehensive primary health-care services, including health promotion, disease prevention, curative care and end-of-life services, that are integrated and coordinated according to need;

(4) to promote active participation by all people, in the processes of developing policy and improving health and health care, in order to support the renewal of primary health care;

(5) to train adequate numbers of health workers, able to work in a multidisciplinary context, in order to respond effectively to people’s health needs;

(6) to ensure that vertical programmes, including disease-specific programmes, are developed and implemented in the context of integrated primary health care;

(7) to improve access to appropriate medicines, health products and technologies, all of which are required to support primary health care;

(8) to develop and strengthen health information and surveillance systems relating to primary health care in order to facilitate evidence-based policies and programmes and their evaluation;

(9) to strengthen health ministries, enabling them to provide inclusive, transparent and accountable leadership of the health sector and to facilitate multisectoral action as part of primary health care;. …”