22 August 2007
The Prime Minister and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have released the following joint statement on a new International Health Partnership.
The Partnership will bring together major donor countries, including Britain and Germany, and key international agencies such as the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.
Read the statement
At Heiligendamm, under the leadership of Chancellor Merkel, the G8 leaders recognised the importance of a commitment to better support country level health plans through better bilateral and multilateral coordination:
"We… appeal to bilateral donors, to multilateral development banks, the WHO and the global initiatives in the health sector to assist and align on country led processes in line with the agreements of the Paris Declaration of March 2005 and to provide targeted support to African health system development. In this context, the G8 will enhance coordination of bilateral and multilateral health partnerships with national health strategies (Scaling Up for Better Health process) and appeal to the World Bank and the WHO to support country driven harmonization processes in the health sector in cooperation with the African Development Bank and the African Union as well as other relevant international organizations."
In pursuit of this we declared on 31st July at the UN that we have seven years to go to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals but, half way to 2015, we are off track. Of the MDGs, those focussing on health are the least likely to be met. The recent MDG mid term report highlights the challenges: half a million women still die unnecessarily every year in childbirth, 10 million children do not reach their fifth birthday, and only one in four of those in need of AIDS treatment in Africa is able to receive it.
Having declared that we needed urgent action to meet this development emergency we are taking steps working with others to convert our promises into action.
The good news is that progress has been made. Aid for health has more than doubled from $6 billion in 2000 to $14 billion in 2005, producing impressive results in the fight against diseases. For example deaths from measles, one of the main child killers, have fallen by 60% since 1999; a major public health success. The TB epidemic is on the verge of decline and 2 million people are now receiving AIDS treatment, transforming what was until recently a death sentence into a manageable illness. Via bilateral cooperation channels, innovative financing instruments, through UN Organisations, International Financing Institutions, International Partnerships such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, millions of lives are being saved. We know we can make a difference.
However we recognise the enormous challenges ahead and the improvements we need to make in our approach. Much of the increased aid in recent years has targeted specific interventions but has not built strong sustainable health systems that are essential to deal with all the major causes of ill health. And we know that weak systems - the lack of health workers, clinics, supplies of essential medicines and lack of sustainable health financing systems - are the main barriers to making more rapid progress in improving health outcomes.
Secondly global health assistance is over complex with many different health partnerships and international organisations providing support through separate aid channels, leading in many cases to fragmented health provision on the ground. These compete for limited trained staff and can function outside the recipient countries’ priorities and structures. This fragmentation has undoubtedly reduced the effectiveness of much aid.
Bilateral and multilateral partners, including us, therefore will be launching on 5th September a new agreement - The International Health Partnership - as part of a global campaign to address the Health MDGs and equivalent to the coordination process of the Fast Track Initiative on education - between developing countries and, donors, international health agencies and foundations. The aim of the initiative is to accelerate progress towards MDGs 4, 5 and 6 - namely, reducing child and maternal mortality, and tackling specific diseases such as HIV/AIDS by increasing access to and use of health services, and deliver improved outcomes.
The agreement, which has been developed with bilateral, international health and funding agencies, developing countries, and foundations commits all the partners to: working with country owned plans; creating a mechanism to agree donor support to national plans; coordinating their efforts on the ground; and focussing on the creation of sustainable health systems which deliver improved outcomes. Partners will work together to ensure that health plans are well designed, well supported and well implemented. In this context we reiterate the G8 commitment to the "Providing for Health" initiative aimed at helping countries develop strong national health financing systems which can ensure universal coverage. This process will be closely and systematically linked and provide input to the Health Partnership in order to enhance sustainable structures for accessible and pro-poor health systems.
Collective support to holistic ambitious country owned plans in a coordinated manner will reveal funding gaps as well as other constraints in meeting the health MDGs. We reaffirm our commitment made at the G8 and the EU to provide the financing needed to meet our health commitments through the established institutions and mechanisms. In this context, the replenishment of the Global Fund will be a key step. We will also explore innovative financing mechanisms to meet these commitments.
We look forward to the meeting in New York on 26 September when Prime Minister Stoltenberg will announce renewed international efforts on child and maternal health.
We see this as a critical step in our call for an international mobilisation of effort to achieve the MDGs that will build year on year until 2015. Our efforts must bring together the private sector, NGOs, faith groups, international agencies and governments in a new partnership to reduce poverty, improve health and provide opportunities for the poor across the world.
delicious
digg
facebook
