Viewpoint: Health Can Tackle (and Measure) Inequities

Thursday, April 16, 2015

We know that globally there are sufficient funds available to provide basic health services to everyone, everywhere.

Nearly two years of U.N.-led consultations and intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 agenda are coming to a close, and there have been ample statements made that “no one is to be left behind.”

This creates high expectations during this “Year of Development” for bold political decisions to be taken by EU-driven post-2015 negotiations, and the means of implementation.

Health has long been at the forefront of development cooperation and it has mobilized political will and financial support. The health sector, backed by health activists — particularly the HIV community worldwide — pushed governments and markets to rethink “business as usual,” and come up with new global structures, a setup of pooled international financing mechanisms with innovative partnerships, and go well beyond initial financial engagements to tackle global infectious diseases and ensure access to affordable health care.

Europe has a unique opportunity to be bold, rethink structures and shape the future of health. As the largest donor worldwide with extensive expertise in the field of “global health,” but most of all using a “richesse” of diverse health models that are anchored in human rights, the EU can shape a sustainable development goal for health that reaches everyone: a health goal that tackles inequity.

Furthermore, progress on health has the potential to be the progress measurement mechanism for many other sectors.

Source: Devex (link opens in a new window)

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Health Care