Special Features - UK launches new international health partnership

UK launches new international health partnership
(07/09/07)

African women and children will hope to benefit from the new international health partnership (c) Getty Images

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, have launched a new international partnership to help build national health services in some of the world’s poorest countries.

The partnership will involve donor countries working with international agencies – and eventually the private sector and other groups – to help provide improved medical services in developing nations.

Seven ‘first wave’ countries

Seven ‘first wave’ countries – Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Cambodia and Nepal – have been chosen as the first beneficiaries of the scheme.

The UK will ensure that these countries have the resources to provide technical support to Ministries of Health in these countries, and support stopgap solutions by supplying medicines and tackling the health worker shortage.

Already making a contribution

The global donor community is already making an impact in some countries, including:

Zambia, where the use of health services has increased by 40 per cent since being made cost-free in rural areas
Ethiopia, where the number of front-line health workers has doubled from 6,000 to 12,000 in two years
Burundi, where the number of children receiving health care has nearly doubled since becoming free for under-fives in 2006.

Numerous challenges for developing countries

Developing countries’ health care systems face numerous challenges. For example, health spending in some sub-Saharan African countries is as low as £5 per person per year – the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends £17, while the UK average is £1,400.

There is only one health worker per 1,000 people in some countries. The WHO recommends a minimum of 2.5 per 1,000 and the European average is one per 100. In addition, over half the population in the world’s poorest countries in Africa and Asia lack access to essential medicines.

There is no greater cause

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said:

"There is no greater cause than that every man, woman and child in the world should be able to benefit from the best medicine and healthcare. And our vision today is that we can triumph over ancient scourges and for the first time in history conquer polio, TB, measles and then with further advances and initiatives, go on to address pneumococcal pneumonia, malaria and eventually HIV / AIDS."

Other supporters of the programme

Mr Brown first announced the programme jointly with German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in August 2007.

The two leaders have also secured the support of France, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.

Agencies including the WHO, the World Bank, UNICEF, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have also signed up.

A renewed push

The partnership is part of a renewed push to meet the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, which hope to cut child deaths, improve maternal mortality and achieve success in fighting major diseases by 2015. Hopefully, initiatives like this will improve the health situation in a number of countries around the world.