Health to the fore at Accra

The third high level forum on aid effectiveness saw health to the fore as ministers from across developed and developing countries discussed efforts to improve aid effectiveness. Health had been selected as a tracer sector to assess the efforts made by donors and partner countries since the last high-level forum met in Paris in 2005.

EPHA, as a member of Action For Global Health, had aided these assessments, contributing to the official report presented to the Ministers by the WHO, World Bank and OECD: “Effective aid, better health”. Action For Global Health also contributed to the elaboration of the main outcome document of Accra, as well as roundtables including the one that assessed the sector application of the “Paris Principles on aid effectiveness”. Marielle Hart (of the Stop Aids Alliance), Charlotte Goyon (of Global Health Advocates) and Birgit Dederichs-Bain (of German Agro-Action) also participated for Action For Global Health in the official event and the “market place” that brought together civil society organisations from across the world.

The outcome of the Accra Third High Level Forum was an Accra Agenda for Action which, whilst not containing all that civil society organisations had been calling for, does mark progress. Nonetheless, as the News release from Action For Global Health highlights the challenge will now be translating these international commitments to concrete actions on the ground to improve the health of the most vulnerable across the developing world.