Main description:

How did seven low- and middle-income countries, inspired by the landmark Alma-Ata Declaration, dramatically improve citizen health by focusing on primary health care?

The Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 marked a potential turning point in global health, signaling a commitment to primary health care that could have improved the safety of air, food, water, roads, homes, and workplaces in all 180 countries that signed it. Unfortunately, progress in many countries stalled in the 1980s. The declaration was, however, embraced by a number of countries, where its implementation led to substantial improvement in citizen health.

Achieving Health for All reveals how, inspired by Alma-Ata, the governments of seven countries executed comprehensive primary health care systems, deploying new cadres of community-based health workers to bring relevant services to ordinary households. Drawing on a set of narrative case studies from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Nepal, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam,the book explains how a primary health care focus succeeded in improving population health. The book also conclusively demonstrates that comprehensive, multisector, community-controlled, and population-level primary health care is a viable strategy that, against the odds, has led to sustainable, scalable good health at lower cost.

Bringing together a group of experts to analyze the forty-year legacy of the Alma-Ata Declaration, Achieving Health for All is a fascinating look at the work needed to transform nations from places that make people sick to places where they stay healthy. An inspiring array of lessons learned along the way shows how readers can make policies that support the health of all people.

Contributors: Onaopemipo Abiodun, Vinya Ariyaratne, John Koku Awoonor-Williams, Kedar Prasad Baral, Ayaga A. Bawah, Pedro Mas Bermejo, Fred N. Binka, David Bishai, Carolina Cardona, Dennis Carlson, Chala Tesfaye Chekagn, Hoang Khanh Chi, Svea Closser, Luc Barriere Constantin, Zufan Abera Damtew, Marlou de Rouw, Nadia Diamond-Smith, Philip Forth, Mignote Solomon Haile, Nguyen Thanh Huong, Taufique Joarder, Alice Kuan, Seblewengel Lemma, Sasmira Matta, Ahmed Moen, Rituu B. Nanda, Frank K. Nyonator, Ferdous Arfina Osman, Claudia Pereira, Henry B. Perry, James F. Phillips, Meike Schleiff, Melissa Sherry, Rita Thapa, Kebede Worku

Contents:

Foreword, by Soumya Swaminathan
Foreword, by Abdul Ghaffar
Introduction. Why Does Primary Health Care Matter in the Twenty-First Century?
Part I. Primary Health Care Foundations
Chapter 1. Primary Health Care: History, Trends, Controversies, and Challenges
Chapter 2. Identifying Countries with Exceptionally Rapid Gains in Life Expectancy: A Quantitative Approach
Chapter 3. Strategies to Improve Comprehensive Primary Health Care Performance in a District
Chapter 4. Why Well-Supported Health Systems Are Necessary for Vertical Programs to Succeed: Lessons from Polio Eradication
Chapter 5. Continuity between Comprehensive Primary Health Care and Sustainable Development Goals
Chapter 6. Four Principles of Community-Based Primary Health Care: Support, Appreciate, Learn/Listen, Transfer (SALT)
Part II. Country Case Studies of Primary Health Care at Scale and the Way Forward
Chapter 7. Bangladesh's Health Improvement Strategy as an Example of the Alma-Ata Declaration in Action
Chapter 8. Ethiopia: Expansion of Primary Health Care through the Health Extension Program
Chapter 9. Health Improvement through the Primary Health Care Approach: Case of Nepal
Chapter 10. Four Decades of Community-Based Primary Health Care Development in Ghana
Chapter 11. Sri Lanka's Health Improvements as an Example of the Implementation of the Alma-Ata Declaration
Chapter 12. How Vietnam's Doi Moi Reforms Achieved Rapid Gains in Health with Comprehensive Primary Health Care
Chapter 13. Cuba's Progress on Primary Health Care since the Alma-Ata Conference
Chapter 14. Health for All in the Twenty-First Century: Lessons for the Next Forty Years of Implementing Primary Health Care
List of Contributors
Index