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"Every mine I clear saves a life"
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Dossier |
| Health Health systems and sanitation – Greater autonomy for health-service users |
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Health and health services are not just a matter for governments alone but also for communities. SDC focuses its efforts on improving governance as an essential factor in gearing resource management as closely as possible to users' health needs and welfare. |
Key facts
| There are now more than one hundred global health initiatives. The March 2005 Paris Declaration on boosting aid effectiveness advocated harmonizing and aligning the aid commitment of donor countries and cooperation agencies. | |
"Health systems provide an essential interface between life-saving and health-improving measures and the people who need them. If health systems are weak, the impact of these measures is
diluted or even wasted. So health systems should have top priority in efforts to improve health and ensure the judicious use of resources."
World Health Report, 2000
The decentralization and diversification of health services towards people's needs, and more transparent management, broadens civil society's participation in developing responsive health systems. Thus, with its active involvement at all levels of political dialogue, SDC backs a global approach to tackling health-sector reform in its partner countries. Providing greater autonomy to health users and to those who, for various reasons, do not use these services appropriately, are priorities for the Swiss Cooperation.
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The SDC focus: Empowering the weakest and promoting public-private partnerships SDC gives communities and civil society a voice and a part to play in the planning, implementation and monitoring of health services, encouraging complementarity between communities and health providers in joint management of health services. The SDC's health-promoting measures support initiatives that specifically target the poor and concern behavioural change. Women, children and the most vulnerable members of society are a particular focus, the aim being to provide them with a body of good-quality, basic services at all levels of the health-system. In addition, the Agency contributes to improving the management of sanitation services and resources, assisting the development of sustainable financial models that are specifically geared to the poor and promoting joint public-private systems and instruments for better health-system governance. |
Andreas Loebell
Additional Information and Documents
Documents- SDC Health Policy 2003-2010
Download (PDF, 501 KB) : [de] [en] [ru] - Health despite poverty: a SDC-Sponsored project changes people's perspective
Central Asia Project Briefing
Download (PDF, 878 KB) : [de] [en] [fr] - Healthcare for remote regions: an SDC project in Kyrgyzstan sets the standard
Central Asia Project Briefing
Download (PDF, 805 KB) : [de] [en] [fr]
Internal Links
External Links
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SDC Health website for professionals
SDC employees, partners and interested parties will find key documents and additional information regarding health on this platform.http://www.sdc-health.ch
Articles and Press releases
- What are “advanced diseases” doing in the most disadvantaged countries?
- Challenges for Regional Health Cooperation in Global Health Governance, Geneva, 15.10.2009
- Tanzanian success story: improved survival of children under 5