‘Special attention should be paid to strengthening public health infrastructure, workforce and funding, as well as increasing equity for those most at risk or who are already being left behind’ | Photo Credit: M. Karunakaran
This year on World Health Day (7 April), the World Health Organization (WHO) is celebrating 75 years of improving public health and well-being in the South-East Asia region. Globally, WHO is fully committed to achieving ‘Health for All’ through Universal Health Coverage (UHC) – when all people can access essential health services without financial hardship.
For decades – and even before the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata – high-level leaders and policy makers across the region have recognized the critical role that access to quality, affordable and comprehensive primary health care (PHC) plays for all. can play a role in achieving UHC. , and hence ‘Health for All’. This has been reflected in the region’s renewed, decade-long push to achieve UHC, which has been one of the region’s eight key priorities since 2014.
Progress and Challenges
Between 2010 and 2019, the region increased its UHC service coverage index from 47 to 61. Between 2000 and 2017, the region reduced the number of households that either lost or lost their out-of-pocket spending on health by over 30%. up to 6%. Since 2014, the density of doctors, nurses and midwives in the region has improved by more than 30%.
Five countries in the region have already achieved the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for child under-five mortality and neonatal mortality. Between 2000 and 2020, the region achieved a 34% decline in tuberculosis incidence rates, and by the end of 2020, had met each of the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria milestones for mortality and morbidity . Since 2016, six countries in the region have eliminated at least one neglected tropical disease and all countries continue to strengthen PHC services to prevent, detect, control and treat non-communicable diseases.
Impressively, the region has maintained its polio-free status and continues to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus as a public health problem. Five countries in the region have eliminated measles, two have eliminated rubella, and four have controlled hepatitis B through vaccination.
There are many more mountains to climb in this area. Today, in the shadow of the COVID-19 crisis, nearly 40% of people are unable to access essential health services. In 2017, approximately 299 million people faced catastrophic health expenditures, and an estimated 117 million were pushed below or beyond the purchasing power parity poverty line of $1.90 a day – a figure that has since risen.
lessons after the pandemic
As highlighted in the region’s 2021 strategy for primary health care, as well as the region’s vision for a better recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, action by whole of government and whole of society is needed to drive rapid and sustained Needed. Progress towards UHC and ‘Health for All’. We all should contribute in this.
High-level leaders should maintain and strengthen political and financial commitments to achieve UHC, accelerating the momentum ahead of the second UN General Assembly meeting on UHC in September this year. The COVID-19 crisis has shown that investing in UHC and health system resilience underpins not only health but also social and economic security, as well as the achievement of an array of SDGs.
Policy makers and program managers should continue to implement the field strategy for PHCs. Particular focus should be on strengthening public health infrastructure, workforce and funding, as well as increasing equity for those most at risk or who are already being left behind. Sharing education must remain a key priority, leveraging the full power of the region’s new platform for PHC-oriented health systems.
people should be heard
Individuals and communities must increasingly assert their voice and right to health, including being directly involved in local health decision-making processes. As highlighted by the 2021 WHO Handbook on Social Partnerships for UHC, as well as the region’s recently adopted Resolution on Enhancing Social Partnerships in Support of PHC and UHC, individual and community healthcare performance monitoring and health providers can play an important role in holding policy makers to account.
Partners, donors and other stakeholders in the region must all do the same on UHC and ‘Health for All’, recognizing that the PHC approach is the most effective, efficient and equitable way to build national health systems that are integrated, and that support healthy populations. Let’s get to. , health security and UHC. In all countries, policy makers must lead and partners must lend their support. Aid should be fully aligned to national priorities to avoid duplication and fragmentation.
Media interaction on the occasion of 75th anniversary of World Health Organization in Geneva. photo credit: AFP
On WHO’s 75th founding anniversary, let us be united in purpose and inspired by action to achieve UHC and ‘Health for All’, ensuring that all people in a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world have a full Have good health for life.
(WHO’s South-East Asia Region includes 11 member states: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste.)
Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh is the Regional Director for South-East Asia of the World Health Organization (WHO)