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WHO Regional Office Calls for Strengthened Health Systems to Achive Health MDGs

Posted on: Wednesday, 24 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

WHO regional office calls for strengthened health systems to achive health MDGs

MANILA, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- A strengthened health system has to be established before the health Millennium Development Goals (MDG) can be achieved, the World Health Organization (WHO) regional office said Tuesday.

With release of a report, Health and the Millennium Development Goals, the WHO's Regional Office for the Western Pacific said in a statement that the data cited in the report show weak and inequitable health systems as a key obstacle to realize health MDG targets.

The WHO warned that without more rapid progress in developing health systems, large numbers of people will continue to die from mostly preventable disease, such as malaria, killing approximately one million people annually, and HIV/AIDS, claiming 3 million lives each year.

"Building strong health systems requires improvements across governments -- in public financial management, manpower planning, roads and infrastructure, and many other areas," said WHO Director- General Dr Lee Jong-Wook.

"The problem in many countries is getting the staff, medicines, vaccines and information to those who need them on time. In too many countries, the health system either does not exist or is on the point of collapse," he said.

Noting securing sustainable health systems financing as key, the WHO said that a minimum of 30-40 US dollars per capita is needed annually to finance a minimum health package, but many poor countries invest far less, on average 10 dollars per capita, and in some countries, as little as 2 dollars per capita.

Apart from urgent investment, health systems also require commitments from developing countries to increase accountability and prioritize health in national and poverty reduction plans, and from donors to better coordinate aid.

According to the WHO, Health and the Millennium Development Goals highlights a need to address the challenges including the growing burden of noncommunicable disease in the developing world; the "nutrition transition" in which people in developing countries begin to adopt unhealthy eating habits common in richer countries and suffer the health consequence; the need for universal access to reproductive and sexual health services; and the impact of globalization on the spread of disease and migration of health staff.

Among the eight goals of the MDG, which was agreed to by 189 world leaders through the Millennium Declaration at a summit in 2000, three are related to health, as well as eight out of 18 targets, and 18 of 48 indicators.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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