The World Health Organization (Who) by Kelley Lee

Author:Kelley Lee [Lee, Kelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), General
ISBN: 9781134199891
Google: Y_dVaJ7x-7QC
Goodreads: 17481293
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2008-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Recognizing their convergent thinking on health development, Mahler and UNICEF Director Henry Labouisse hosted the landmark International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma Ata, Kyrgyzstan in September 1978. The conference remains “a major milestone of the twentieth century in the field of public health.”11 Adopting the goal of Health for All, the conference called for a revolution in thinking about health development, rejecting top-down, high-tech and vertical (disease-focused) approaches in favor of accessible, integrated care that recognized the key role of local communities, affordable and appropriate technologies, and the need to address the underlying political, social and economic causes of poor health. The strategy to achieve all of this was identified as primary health care (PHC), shifting the focus from large urban hospitals to local health providers as the first point of contact—general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and other health providers within communities. Importantly, the strategy also embraced the role of citizens and communities, including local government and civil society organizations (CSOs). In short, PHC sought to shift emphasis from a top-down to a bottom-up approach, and from vertical (disease) to horizontal (integrated) health care. The conference, attended by 134 out of 158 member states, unanimously endorsed the Declaration of Alma Ata (Box 4.2).

Box 4.2 Declaration of Alma-Ata, International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata, USSR, 6–12 September 1978

The International Conference on Primary Health Care, meeting in Alma-Ata this twelfth day of September in the year Nineteen hundred and seventy-eight, expressing the need for urgent action by all governments, all health and development workers, and the world community to protect and promote the health of all the people of the world, hereby makes the following

Declaration

I The Conference strongly reaffirms that health, which is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, is a fundamental human right and that the attainment of the highest possible level of health is a most important world-wide social goal whose realization requires the action of many other social and economic sectors in addition to the health sector.

II The existing gross inequality in the health status of the people particularly between developed and developing countries as well as within countries is politically, socially and economically unacceptable and is, therefore, of common concern to all countries.

III Economic and social development, based on a New International Economic Order, is of basic importance to the fullest attainment of health for all and to the reduction of the gap between the health status of the developing and developed countries. The promotion and protection of the health of the people is essential to sustained economic and social development and contributes to a better quality of life and to world peace.

IV The people have the right and duty to participate individually and collectively in the planning and implementation of their health care.

V Governments have a responsibility for the health of their people which can be fulfilled only by the provision of adequate health and social measures. A main social target

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.