10th July, 2009
The 2009 summit did not make any concrete commitments to improving health in Africa
L’Aquila, Italy, July 10, 2009
At the conclusion of the 2009 G8 Summit, the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) is disappointed that no concrete conclusions were made for ensuring the right to health of African communities.
“It is striking that on two different occasions Italian President Berlusconi, while stating publicly that there had to be a change in the methods of giving aid to Africa, managed to mention almost all priority sectors of intervention, except for health,” says Giulia De Ponte, AMREF’s spokeperson in L’Aquila, where the summit was held.
AMREF acknowledges that the G8 2009 final Communiqué on Development and Africa does certainly address key issues – particularly the global health worker shortage and the need to strenghten health systems – which are majors stumbling blocks on the way to achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals. In particular, the L’Aquila G8 Health Experts’ Report emphasises the need for the G8 to prioritise integration of health services and access to primary health care in order to strengthen health systems. Nevertheless, the final Communiqué does not go beyond statements and fails to state any concrete steps of action.
“Consensus that human resources for health need to be supported already exists within the international community and is codified in the 2008 Kampala Declaration and Agenda for Global Action. The fact that the G8 Communiqué simply ‘notes’ this does not move things forward. The 2009 G8 summit missed the opportunity to act upon the Kampala consensus, and to translate statements into investments and solid action,” says Victoria Kimotho of AMREF Headquarters.
AMREF believes that, if the statements are to have any meaning, the G8 must:
- urgently support developing countries to develop and fully implement robust health workforce plans. These need to be comprehensive, evidence-based and needs-based, linked to national health strategies, budgeted and with implementation strategies in place. These plans need to significantly scale up support systems for community and mid-level health workers;
- fund those plans with sufficient and sustained investments: over the next ten years, US$26.4 billion is needed for pre-service education in sub-Saharan Africa to fill the region’s gap of 1.5 million health workers;
- expand their own domestically-trained health workforce, reducing brain drain ‘pull’ factors;
- influence IMF policies to expand fiscal space for health spending and enable civil society and government ownership of these policies;
- include health workforce in the G8 follow-up mechanism.
For more information, contact Victoria Kimotho on Tel: +254 20 6993237
