2008 is the thirtieth anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration - a commitment made in 1978 that Health for All would be achieved by 2000. It was not.
2008 is only seven years before the target of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.
ACT NOW FOR HEALTH is a campaign to get ministers from governments around the world to commit that health must be a priority in 2008. Urgent action is needed. We are asking ministers to sign the following statement, calling for the world to Act Now for Health in 2008. We are asking civil society organisations too to show their support.
STATEMENT
We, Ministers from around the world, are deeply concerned that every minute a woman dies in childbirth or pregnancy, every hour 300 people die of an AIDS-related illness and every day 4000 children die of diarrhea. Most of these deaths could be prevented with access to basic health care.
30 years ago, our predecessors signed the Declaration of Alma Ata and agreed to achieve health for all by the year 2000. Eight years ago, reflecting the spirit of Alma Ata, we all agreed the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to reduce child and maternal mortality and combat diseases such as HIV and AIDS and malaria by 2015.
Great strides have been made during the last 30 years to honour these commitments, but there is still so much more to be done.
As former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan once said: “we are the first generation in the history of mankind to have the power to end poverty in our lifetimes”. In 2008, the 30th anniversary of Alma Ata and mid-way to the MDGs, the challenge has now fallen to us to make the right to health a reality, and ensure that all the world’s poorest and most vulnerable, especially women and children, have access to health care.
We, Ministers from around the world, reaffirm our commitment to achieving health care for all. We urgently request that people around the world join us in committing the financial resources and political will needed to build strong health systems that will provide access, treatment and care for all people.
This statement has been endorsed by ministers from the following countries:
- Antigua & Barbuda
- Argentina
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Republic of Bolivia
- Brazil
- Brunei Daressalam
- Cambodia
- Canada
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- French Guiana
- Ghana
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guatemala
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Jamaica
- Kiribati
- Martinique
- Mexico
- Nepal
- Nicaragua
- Palau
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Puerto Rico
- St Lucia
- St Kitts and Nevis
- St Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- Saudi Arabia
- Serbia
- Suriname
- Trinidad & Tobago
- United Kingdom
- United Kingdom Overseas Territories
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
- Zimbabwe
(The Americas Group signed collectively at their regional meeting at the World Health Assembly).
ACT NOW FOR HEALTH is a joint initiative by Action for Global Health, the Global Movement for Children, Oxfam International, Save the Children UK and WorldVision International. Sign here to join this campaign.
