07 September 2007
Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week launched an ambitious plan to improve health services across developing countries by making better use of international aid – but he committed no extra UK funding to the initiative.
Brown was joined by leaders from seven developing countries, and senior officials from international health agencies, at the launch of the International Health Partnership on September 5.
The IHP forms part of a renewed global push to meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals, launched in 2000 with the aim of tackling global poverty by 2015 but now far behind target.
Under the IHP, international aid donors, including nations, aim to improve the impact of aid by helping developing countries to build effective health systems, partly by improving accounting and financial transparency.
Unlike initiatives that focus on particular policies, such as tackling the spread of HIV/Aids, the IHP works to improve entire health economies. Seven states will pilot the programme: Burundi, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal and Zambia.
Brown said: 'Our vision… is that we can triumph over ancient scourges and for the first time in history conquer polio, TB, measles and then with further advances… go on to address pneumonia, malaria and eventually HIV/Aids.'
But officials at the Department for International Development told Public Finance that the UK would not yet commit new money. Brown has already substantially increased UK aid to developing countries and one source said 'the point of the IHP was to assist states to help themselves' by providing technical support and advice.
A senior DfID official said Brown had ensured that the programme had 'real teeth' by bringing on board influential partners. Other states signed up include Germany, France, Italy and Canada. But the US, Japan and Russia are notable Group of Eight nations that are not signatories.
Global organisations supporting the IHP include the World Health Organisation, the United Nations and the World Bank.
Speaking on the problems in meeting the MDGs, International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said: 'We're seriously off track. Half a million women still die every year in childbirth, 10 million children don't live to see their fifth birthday.
'High-level political commitment is what we need to make a real difference.'
PFsep2007
