28 September 2015: The UN and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are working together on a number of health-related initiatives, including a partnership to support countries in improving primary health care and a report outlining a vision to eradicate malaria by 2040, both of which were launched on the sidelines of the UN Sustainable Development Summit. The Summit adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include a target for achieving universal health coverage by 2030 (target 3.8).
On primary health care, the Gates Foundation, the World Bank Group and the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI) at an event co-hosted by the Governments of Germany, Ghana and Norway, on 26 September 2015, in New York, US.
During the event, German Chancellor Angela Merkel launched a framework for the initiative to strengthen primary health care, titled ‘Roadmap: Healthy Systems-Healthy Lives,’ which aims to support countries to strengthen monitoring, tracking and sharing of performance indicators for primary health care.
The PHCPI aims to bring together health policymakers, practitioners, advocates and development partners to: monitor primary health care vital signs; improve the quality of primary health care data; promote country collaboration and improvement; expand the availability of existing data to more countries; and provide a platform to share lessons and co-develop tools for improving health care.
According to WHO, more than 400 million people worldwide lack access to essential health services typically delivered through primary health care. WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a press release that improving primary health care can meet the majority of people’s health needs, and the Ebola epidemic revealed what can happen when health systems are broken and in need of repair.
The UN and the Gates Foundation also released a report presenting a vision for eradicating malaria by 2040, which advocates innovative strategies, tools and financing, and urges world leaders to expand their commitments to fight a disease that “still kills about one child every minute.”
The report, ‘From Aspiration to Action: What Will It Take to End Malaria?,’ urges donors and malaria-affected countries to expand their commitment to combat malaria and emphasizes that its eradication could save 11 million lives and unlock US$2 trillion in economic benefits.
Ray Chambers, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria, and Bill Gates asserted that the alternative to eradication – controlling the disease forever without eliminating it – is biologically and politically untenable, and would require “endless investment” in developing new drugs and insecticides just to stay “one step ahead of resistance.” [UN Press Release on PHCPI] [WHO Press Release] [PHPCI Website] [UN Press Release on Malaria Report] [Publication: From Aspiration to Action: What Will It Take to End Malaria?] [IISD RS Story on Reaching MDG-related Malaria Target]