Achieving the health Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific : policies and actions within health systems and beyond

Abstract

The representatives of the 191 Governments that signed the Millennium Declaration in 2000 established eight overarching goals to promote the holistic development of the entire population of the world. The inclusion of three targets specifically related to health supports the contention that the achievement of good health is essential for achieving the wider goals of economic growth and poverty alleviation. The present report tracks the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific. It also analyses the barriers the region faces in making sustainable progress towards achieving the Goals and the reasons for large-scale intracountry and intercountry disparities in their achievement. The report presents a number of strategies for removing such barriers, including a range of action and policy options at the national and regional levels. These involve strategies and policies related to the comprehensive strengthening of health systems and the effective addressing of the broader determinants of health related to economic and trade policies, as well as actions taken to improve education and gender equality and to reduce poverty.

It addresses the issue of the institutional changes required to implement policies more effectively within and outside the health sector, in order to deliver health services in an equitable and efficient manner. The report was especially useful as an input in the preparation of the theme study for the sixty third session of the Commission, entitled “Development of Health Systems in the Context of Enhancing Economic Growth towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific”. The report owes much to the collaborative efforts of the tripartite regional partnership of ESCAP, UNDP and the Asian Development Bank aimed at ensuring a common voice concerning the efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in Asia and the Pacific.