allAfrica.com: Africa: Continent Hosts Historic Conference on Primary Health Care to Renew Commitment to Health for All (Page 1 of 2)

Africa: Continent Hosts Historic Conference on Primary Health Care to Renew Commitment to Health for All

Thirty years after the emergence of the slogan "Health For All", the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, in collaboration with development partners and the Government of Burkina Faso, is organizing a major conference from 28 – 30 April in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, to renew commitment to primary health care as the means to achieve improvements in health outcomes for the people of Africa.

The three-day conference, which coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration on Primary Health Care (PHC) and the 60th anniversary of WHO, aims to revitalize primary health care and health systems development in countries in the African Region in order to achieve the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)..

"Good health is not a gift or commodity to be rationed on ability to pay. The wealth of a nation should not determine the health of a people. Quality, affordable care for people is a human right, a matter of basic fairness", said WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo. "The main problem is not just poverty", Dr Sambo added, " The inability of populations to afford and access quality health care is blatant injustice… and there is no better strategy to employ than primary health care to fight injustice in the health sector."

More than 500 participants from within and outside Africa are expected to take part in the conference which will be opened by the Head of State of Burkina Faso, President Blaise Compare.

Participants include Ministers of Health, policy and decision-makers and managers of health services; researchers, academicians, and social anthropologists; representatives of training institutions and ministries operating in the area of health (e.g. education and finance ministries); and representatives of international organizations , civil society, youth and women's organizations and the private sector, among others.

The Conference will be organized in plenary and parallel sessions to discuss a range of topics including Human Resources for Health; health financing and essential medicines and technologies; governance, decentralization, management and delivery of essential and quality health services; public –private partnership for health management and multisectoral collaboration for health development.

A Discussion Paper prepared by WHO, and to be deliberated upon at the conference, says that over the three decades since Alma Ata, many countries in the African have embraced PHC and instituted measures to strengthen their health systems. Such measures include decentralization and establishment of health districts; training of personnel for PHC management; creation of social welfare development committees and integration of programmes like immunization, diarrhoeal diseases and essential drugs within PHC. Most have developed health policies and strategic plans clearly stating PHC as the main strategy for achieving improvements in health and the universal provision of a basic package of services to reach the MDGs, as the core of these documents.

Progress in PHC implementation

The Paper adds :"Decentralization in the health sector has contributed to the growth of more responsive and equitably distributed health facilities as seen in Uganda and the former "homelands" in South Africa. Efforts to build facilities for provision of basic health services in the rural areas have led to improved geographical access to basic health services for larger numbers of people especially in rural areas. For example, in Uganda, the proportion of the population within five–kilometre radius of a health facility rose from 49% at the beginning of the 90s to 72% in 2004 ».

Appreciable progress has also been recorded in countries like Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia which have taken pragmatic decisions to form partnerships with private providers of health services including NGOs, Faith-Based Organizations and other private providers of health services and goods, thus leading to a wider, more effective coverage of basic services. Several countries have developed the legislative and regulatory frameworks governing the health sector and established regulatory institutions e.g. Medical and Nurses Practice Councils. There have been improvements in availability of information for decision-making in the region with the institutionalization of health management information systems in most countries. Many Member States have also developed developed Essential Medicines lists.

According to the report, a number of countries now issue good quality and comprehensive annual health sector reports, and, since the late 1990s, have instituted Sector Wide Approaches to health development whose essence is a partnership of sector stakeholders including public and private sectors and funding agencies under government leadership. This has put national governments more squarely in the steering role, making it possible to mobilize more resources in line with national policies and priorities, including implementation of the PHC strategy.

In some countries, community participation and involvement havr been enhanced by the inclusion of community members on health facility management committees, boards and area health committees. These committees usually have mandates to discuss development and sectoral issues and can allocate resources across and within sectors. A specialized form of community participation is the use of traditional healers and Traditional Birth Attendants who assist women in child birth in most African countries. A few countries such Ghana, Malawi and Nigeria have developed laws and guidelines for the management of this form of community involvement

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