The Formula to Realize Global Health by 2030
The To-do List for Realizing Global Health by 2030
Realizing global health is about creating health systems that implement health programs, which deliver healthcare services to about 7.3 billion people in the most cost-effective way. That’s it. “System-program-services” is the simple formula to improve health for all. Unfortunately though, this simple formula is not easy to implement. It’s an understatement to say we can feel overwhelmed by merely thinking about achieving the goal of serving the health needs of 7 billion people, but there is a way.
Every country has its own health system, its own strengths and weaknesses, and an ever increasing number of donors. These donors include “soft” lenders and partners that offer help in many and unique ways, and with their own set of strengths and weaknesses. Thirty years ago when I started to practice medicine, there were just a small group of governments, development banks, NGOs and foundations that provided assistance in global health. Now, there are hundreds of bilateral and multilateral donors, global funds and facilities and private foundations. Almost every developed country has an Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) agency. Not every developing country has the infrastructure to manage and develop the country’s health system. Not every country can make the best of the assistance its partners have and want to offer.
To make things more complicated, questions are posed that make realizing global health look even more overwhelming and seem out of reach: How will the costs be covered for all of that? How can we help make funding flow efficiently from governments and donors to districts and municipalities to ensure quality health care is delivered in even the most rural of the health facilities? How can developing country governments have financial systems that can provide quality health care when they hardly manage a few tens of million dollars and when there are so many opportunities for leaks and losses? When will developing country systems be ready to also include and account for more millions of ODA dollars?
The formula for realizing global health is simple. The solution to being overwhelmed and not taking effective action and achieve sustainable results is to simplify global health. Simplification will allow us all to make sure everyone involved in global health can progressively achieve the results we want so that by the year 2030 we are able to serve the 8.7 billion people with whom we will share this planet. Here is the simple formula for realizing global health by 2030:
By 2016, every country must have a national health plan that progressively improves the efficiency of health system to implement its disease control and prevention programs through a network of population-based private and government-run facilities.
To prevent getting overwhelmed, we must aim at reaching at least 5% of the formula every year over the next 15 years. Here is the to-do list for each country to implement the global health formula:
- Every public and private healthcare facility must have a defined coverage area and a known denominator to report to the national health information system that is linked to the global health information system.
- Every country must have a number of well-designed health programs (MCH, FP, TB, HIV/AIDS, Malaria, NCD, etc.) that are implemented through the national network of healthcare facilities with the technical assistance of donors, if needed.
- Every country must have a health facility plan to increase or reduce the number healthcare facilities where needed depending on population growth, density and needs.
- Every healthcare facility must have water and electricity and be staffed according to internationally accepted standards.
- Every private facility must be accredited and part of the national health information system as well.
- Every country must develop an appropriate new cadre of primary health care providers to meet the needs of every citizen through public and private training institutions in accordance to the national health workforce development plan.
- Every health provider will have a tablet and internet access and access to up to date clinical, management and health information. Every provider will be responsible for providing primary health care services to a defined population. Private providers will report what populations they are as registered patients to prevent overlap.
As I said, it is simple to realize global health. Though it is not easy. It just takes the 7 simple steps stated above to get started…
If you want to learn more about improving aid effectiveness and the “RGH Formula,” I invite you to sign up for the free RGH webinar entitled “Aid Effectiveness in Global Health: Getting Back to Basics in Global Health”.
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