Funding for primary health care in developing countries

doi:10.1136/bmj.39496.444271.80

BMJ 2008;336:518-519 (8 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39496.444271.80

Editorials

Funding for primary health care in developing countries

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The World Health Organization’s World Health Report 2007deals with access to primary health care as an essential prerequisitefor health.¹ It acknowledges the importance of the Alma-Atadeclaration of 1978, which called for integrated primary healthcare as a way to deal with major health problems in communitiesand for access to care as part of a comprehensive national healthsystem. Yet the mission of Alma-Ata—to provide accessible,affordable, and sustainable primary health care for all—hasbeen implemented only partially in developing countries.² Wehave therefore instigated the "15by2015" campaign (www.15by2015.org),which proposes a funding mechanism for strengthening primaryhealth care in developing countries.

In the accompanying analysis article, Gillam notes that mostdeveloping countries have failed to provide even basic primaryhealthcare packages. Weaknesses in primary healthcare servicesoften result from a variety of forces, including economic crisesand market reforms, which limit the range and . . . [Full text of this article]

Jan De Maeseneer, professor of family medicine¹, Chris van Weel, professor of family medicine², David Egilman, clinical associate professor³, Khaya Mfenyana, professor of family medicine⁴, Arthur Kaufman, professor of community health⁵, Nelson Sewankambo, professor of medicine⁶, Maaike Flinkenflögel, researcher¹

¹ Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, Ghent University, Belgium, ² Department of Family Medicine, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands, ³ Brown University, Providence, RI, USA, ⁴ Department of Family Medicine, Walter Sisulu University, Mthatha, South Africa, ⁵ Department of Community Health, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, USA, ⁶ Faculty of Medicine, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

jan.demaeseneer@ugent.be

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