2008 marks an important point in progress towards improving aid effectiveness, and health will play a key role leading up to the third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana, in September.
The first step to Accra will be when the Commission adopts an "Umbrella" Communication at the end of March 2008 that will cover the aspects of aid effectiveness as well as aid for trade and the coherence between EU general policies and development objectives.
The Slovenian Presidency will lead the Development Council discussions of this document in late May as well as providing input to the OECD for Aid Effectiveness Accra High Level Forum. The meeting will be reviewing the progress to implement the aid effectiveness principles agreed by both OECD donors and recipient countries in Paris in 2005 - the so called Paris Principles. The OECD is using health as one of the "tracer" sectors to determine whether the Paris principles are being applied appropriately.
The Action for Global Health network will organise a round table before the Development Ministers debate the Commission’s umbrella communication. The round table will feature case studies which highlight how aid effectiveness measures impact oh developing countries.
The World Heath Organisation will use the World Health Assembly in May 2008 to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration which called for ’Health for All’.
Secondly there will be the appointment of a new United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Right to Health following the completion of the maximum two mandates of the current Special Rapporteur - Paul Hunt - in December.
Also in December there will be events arranged to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 2008 therefore has a number of opportunities to highlight the right to health.
Any EPHA members that will work on health rights during this year are invited to contact the EPHA Secretariat for support and collaboration.
