Donors making a difference: toward universal health coverage

The world has committed to making health for all a reality.Primary health care (PHC) is one of the best tools we have for achieving that goal.

It’s about health for everyone and at all ages, covering prevention, health promotion, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care.This week’s stories focus on donor-supported activities that are helping create a world where the health needs of everyone are covered.Read, for example, about the half million more health workers being trained to work in the Americas, the new clinic for a village in Sudan, WHO/Europe’s vision for transforming primary health care, and the much-appreciated health services offered by mobile clinics in Syria and Palestine.

This edition also covers polio trackers in Tanzania and malaria trackers in Timor-Leste, the special health-care challenges of the world’s smallest countries, new ideas for improving health care in prisons and Bangladesh’s biggest-ever cholera vaccination campaign.New initiative means half a million more health workers for the Americas Over the next five years, 500 000 public health workers will be trained and equipped through a joint initiative of the United States of America and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).“Without healthcare workers there is no resilient health system, no access to healthcare, nor preparedness for pandemics,” PAHO Director Dr Carissa F.

Etienne said at the launch of the initiative in June.The Americas Health Corps (Fuerza de Salud de las Americas) is seeking to fill an estimated shortage of 600,000 workers, primarily in rural and underserved areas.In Sudan, community dialogues pave the way to health and peaceAbove: a conversation about health care in Abu Gaw, North Darfur, led by a WHO staff member.