Making the World Accountable When It Comes To Global Health
Last June, RGH attended a 3 day health summit held by the World Bank, WHO and USAID. The purpose of Measurement and Accountability for Results in Health Summit was to bring together global health leaders, development partners, and country representatives to endorse a common agenda to improve and sustain country measurement and accountability systems for health results through 2030, including national health goals and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). RGH’s role at this summit was to be an effective participant by making sure that these leaders and partners kept in mind all that has been learned about measurement and accountability since the Paris Declaration in 2005 so the summit will advance the goals already put in place through 2030 and are attainable. These summits are used as check up’s and ensure that what we set out to do is being put into place. Also, that the money provided through the World Bank and other organizations is used wisely and to the best of its ability in the countries they are servicing.
At RGH, we strive so our work is measured and accounted for is a part of each country’s national health plan and therefore, we wanted that the summit take in consideration country ownership. Current Millennium Development Goals are in survival mode. They were created with the survival of country’s populations in mind. In order to protect the future, we must create health services that will go beyond survival and work and understand the people they are serving and prolong life and the quality of every life. This is the only way that these services will be utilized to advance these populations towards better health.
If the donors, regardless if they are private or public, are not aligned with what the country is already trying to achieve, creating successful health systems will always run in parallel and never meet. These parallel programs end up creating more confusion in the long run, setting the country back from attaining its SDGs set forth by the UN.
Summits like these are great places to evaluate, measure, and show accountability for what we are trying to achieve when it comes to global health.
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