Health For All
Encyclopedia
Health For All is a programming goal of the World Health Organization
(WHO), which envisions securing the health and well being of people around the world that has been popularized since the 1970s. It is the basis for the World Health Organization's primary health care
strategy to promote health
, human dignity, and enhanced quality of life.
Two decades later, WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook
(2003–2006) reaffirmed the concept in the World Health Report
2003:
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
(WHO), which envisions securing the health and well being of people around the world that has been popularized since the 1970s. It is the basis for the World Health Organization's primary health care
Primary health care
Primary health care, often abbreviated as “PHC”, has been defined as "essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost...
strategy to promote health
Health promotion
Health promotion has been defined by the World Health Organization's 2005 Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion in a Globalized World as "the process of enabling people to increase control over their health and its determinants, and thereby improve their health"...
, human dignity, and enhanced quality of life.
Definition
Halfdan Mahler, Director General (1973-1983) of the WHO, defined Health For All in 1981, as follows:Health For All means that health is to be brought within reach of everyone in a given country. And by "health" is meant a personal state of well being, not just the availability of health services – a state of health that enables a person to lead a socially and economically productive life. Health For All implies the removal of the obstacles to health – that is to say, the elimination of malnutritionMalnutritionMalnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
, ignorance, contaminated drinking waterDrinking waterDrinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...
and unhygienic housing – quite as much as it does the solution of pus a lack of doctors, hospital beds, drugs and vaccines.
- Health For All means that health should be regarded as an objective of economic development
Economic developmentEconomic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
and not merely as one of the means of attaining it.- Health For All demands, ultimately, literacy
LiteracyLiteracy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
for all. Until this becomes reality it demands at least the beginning of an understanding of what health means for every individual.- Health For All depends on continued progress in medical care and public health
Public healthPublic health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
. The health services must be accessible to all through primary health carePrimary health carePrimary health care, often abbreviated as “PHC”, has been defined as "essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost...
, in which basic medical help is available in every village, backed up by referral services to more specialised care. Immunisation must similarly achieve universal coverage.- Health For All is thus a holistic concept calling for efforts in agriculture
AgricultureAgriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, industry, education, housing, and communications, just as much as in medicine and public health. Medical care alone cannot bring health to in hovels. Health for such people requires a whole new way of life and fresh opportunities to provide themselves with a higher standard of living.
The adoption of Health For All by government, implies a commitment to promote the advancement of all citizens on a broad front of development and a resolution to encourage the individual citizen to achieve a higher quality of life.
The rate of progress will depend on the political will. The World Health AssemblyWorld Health AssemblyThe World Health Assembly is the forum through which the World Health Organization is governed by its 194 member states. It is the world's highest health policy setting body and is composed of health ministers from member states....
believes that, given a high degree of determination, Health For All could be attained by the year 2000. That target date is a challenge to all WHO's Member States.
The basis of the Health For All strategy is primary health care.
Two decades later, WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook
Lee Jong-wook
-Memorial award:The South Korean government officially announced the establishment of the a Memorial Prize in Dr. Lee's memory. After his death, You Si min, the Minister of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Korea, officially revealed the plans concerning the new awards and urged other nations...
(2003–2006) reaffirmed the concept in the World Health Report
World Health Report
The World Health Report is a series of reports produced regularly by the World Health Organization . First published in 1995, the World Health Report is WHO's leading publication...
2003:
Health for all became the slogan for a movement. It was not just an ideal but an organizing principle: everybody needs and is entitled to the highest possible standard of health. The principles remain indispensable for a coherent vision of global healthGlobal healthGlobal health is the health of populations in a global context and transcends the perspectives and concerns of individual nations. Health problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact, are often emphasized...
. Turning that vision into reality calls for clarity both on the possibilities and on the obstacles that have slowed and in some cases reversed progress towards meeting the health needs of all people. We have a real opportunity now to make progress that will mean longer, healthier lives for millions of people, turn despair into realistic hope, and lay the foundations for improved health for generations to come.