Health Systems Confront Poverty - I Sistemi Sanitari affrontano la Povertà

Istituto San Gallicano IRCCS (Roma)
I SISTEMI SANITARI AFFRONTANO LA POVERTÀ
Translation of the book:
Health Systems Confront Poverty
World Health Organizations Europe - 2003

At its fifty-first session, held in Madrid, Spain, in September 2001, the WHO Regional Committee for Europe recognized that, in view of the overwhelming evidence of the link between poverty and health, health systems have a responsibility to contribute to efforts to reduce poverty. The Regional Committee decided to take up this challenge by adopting a resolution in which, as Regional Director, I was asked to initiate a systematic process for gathering, analysing and disseminating information on direct action taken by health care systems in the European Member States, with the explicit aim of reducing the effects of poverty on health.
The magnitude of the problem of poverty in the European Region today is beyond dispute: gross inequities in health and wellbeing persist in all our countries and, in many, the gap between rich and poor is widening still further. The problem is complex and daunting, but nevertheless much has been, and is being, done by health care systems across the Region to tackle the issues involved. To date, however, these efforts have been sporadic, and even where results have been encouraging they have received little visibility.
In order to implement the Regional Committee’s resolution on poverty and health, the WHO Regional Office for Europe decided to adopt an innovative approach by giving priority, in this first phase of collecting information, to initiatives already undertaken by health systems in a sample of Member States.
Responsibility for this task was assigned to the new WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development, in Venice.
This report is the fruit of our efforts in this new area over the past year, and it documents WHO’s preliminary findings on how health systems can have a positive impact on alleviating poverty. The analysis of the case studies documented leads to three main conclusions: (a) that health systems can indeed take effective action to improve the health of the poor; (b) that in some cases health systems can actually represent an additional barrier for the poor; and (c) that there is an urgent need for more knowledge,
training and capacity building in this area.
The path to equitable development is a long one, but I am convinced that we have taken an important step in the right direction. Alongside ongoing work at WHO headquarters, we are also playing our part in fulfilling the goals of the Millennium Declaration endorsed by the world community. I see our work in the area of poverty and health as a key to making the right to health a reality for every one of the people living in the European Region today.

Marc Danzon
WHO Regional Director for Europe