The WHO and the World Bank are organising a High-Level Forum in Geneva 8-9 January 2004 to discuss the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Participants include Ministers and officials responsible for finance, planning and health in developing countries, senior officials from bilateral and multilateral donors. The forum will assess progress so far towards meeting the health MDGs, and most importantly, map out what needs to be done to stand a realistic chance of reaching those goals. The major concern is that progress towards them is slower than towards some other MDGs.
The eight MDGs were set at the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000, where 189 countries committed to ambitious targets for improving the health and well-being of hundreds of millions of people in the developing world by 2015. Four of the Goals relate to health:
to halve maternal and child mortality,
halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger,
combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other infectious diseases,
improve access to safe drinking water and essential drugs.
The major concern is that progress towards health goals is slower than towards some other MDGs despite the fact that many of the "technologies" needed to improve health are available and affordable. The difficulty is getting them to people: in other words, building strong health systems in all countries. Lack of resources is a huge constraint but that it is not the only issue. Delivering quality health services in poor countries is a complex challenge, involving human resources, reliable health information and ensuring that the poorest people are reached. Countries providing aid need also to work together better - both to raise more money and to ensure that advice given to poor countries is consistent.
