Governments urged to strengthen health care framework

Delegations from 43 African and other developing countries have urged governments to “develop a strong national framework for providing basic health services...” This framework should include “an essential package of care adapted to the current priorities, particularly HIV/AIDS, maternal and neonatal mortality, malaria, malnutrition, tuberculosis,” delegates at the “Review of the implementation of the Bamako Initiative’ recommended. The 8-12 March meeting, held in Bamako, Mali, also called on governments “to strengthen the strategies for empowering individuals and families, with particular focus on women and young people, to acquire healthy behaviours and to increase the capacities of communities for managing basic health services and dealing with health and well-being”. The Bamako Initiative was lauched 12 years ago with the aim of improving the quality of and access to health care in developing nations. Under the initiative, health centres have been provided for an additional 60 million people in Africa, according to a news release from the meeting, co-sponsored by UNICEF, WHO and the Malian government. However, many people still do not have full access to primary health care. Major constraints include high attrition rates among health workers, and the scarcity of human resources in this field, which are “often poorly distributed and perform badly”. The more than 200 participants in the meeting, who included representatives of international organisations, recommended “strong national policy for human resource development” and increased budgetary allocations for health care.