PHA-Exchange> Alma Ata Anniversary Pack - Revised

[Claudio]

Friends, 

There is a page (page 3) of the pack, which has to be replaced. An earlier draft of that page was sent by oversight. Please replace this page in the earlier document you received. Best wishes,
Ravi Narayan
Coordinator, People's Health Movement Secretariat

1. WHY ALMA ATA ANNIVERSARY

Ravi Narayan

<secretariat at phmovement.org>

 

1.         The International Conference on Primary Health Care, co-sponsored by WHO and UNICEF, was held in Alma Ata (USSR) from 6th to 12th September 1978. The Declaration of Alma Ata, finalized on 12th September 1978, was a very radical contribution to a new social paradigm of health care. This year we commemorate the 25th Anniversary of this momentous declaration. 

 

2.         The post Alma Ata years have witnessed a wide range of interesting health initiatives. Starting with Primary Health Care Strategies at the Global and country levels, there were other supportive initiatives such as Essential Drugs strategy and the code for Marketing Breast Milk substitutes. Soon the comprehensive strategies were replaced by more selective vertical programmes starting with the expanded programme of immunization and international initiatives like GOBI-FFF, safe motherhood, to more recent ones like RBM and TFI. More recently, another generation of initiatives have evolved including GAVI, MMV, Global fund for AIDS, TB, Malaria and others.

 

3.         The Alma Ata Declaration in 1978 and the Peoples Health Charter, which was a re-endorsement of the Alma Ata principles, at the first Global People's Health Assembly in December 2000 should be used as the framework for analysis to look at the present situation and all the new generation of health initiatives. With the changing visions and roles of international health agencies like WHO and UNICEF who were co-sponsors of the Alma Ata meeting; the growing development of World Bank as a key health player;  the effects of neo-liberal economic policies of liberalization, Globalization and privatization; and evolving international instruments of governance like WTO, IPR, GATT , the whole primary health care context has been distorted. Our analysis must be , therefore, both historical and contextual. 

 

4.         The changing leadership of WHO and UNICEF over the years including the change in WHO in 2003 must be added to the analysis and this Anniversary opportunity should also be used to discuss the type of International health leadership we have, and what we need.

 

5.         With the evolution of the People's Health Movement and the increasing health concerns in the World Social Forum, this is also an important year to reflect on how PHM, WSF and other such international initiatives can strengthen the struggle for Health for All. While it sometimes easier in our analysis to focus on WHO/UNICEF/World Bank and national governments - we should also critically evaluate the NGO-civil/society efforts in the last 25 years. We also need to take the responsibility for not becoming an adequate countervailing power to this neo-liberal distortion in the Health For All goals. 

 

6.         The People's Health Movement evolving at different levels may be the beginning of a new phase, a new collective commitment. Our reflections in 2003 must lead to sustainable mechanisms of functioning so that the momentum continues and gets deeply, socially rooted. 

 

7.         The biggest challenge for all of us in the People's Health Movement is to ensure that the PH Charter does not go the same way as the Alma Ata declaration - forgotten, distorted, selectivised, verticalised, commercialized and ignored. PHM was meant to be a global challenge to this global amnesia. We need to evolve a different strategy this time and use 2003 as a launching pad for it. As we celebrate the Alma Ata Anniversary, let us also celebrate the evolution of the People's Charter for Health.  Two documents that support the struggle for Health for All, Now. 

 

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