Saarc Health Ministers moot

Addressing a press conference on conclusion of the Saarc Health Ministers Conference, in Islamabad, on July 16, Pakistan Health Minister Nasir Khan elaborated on the joint communiqué it issued. As he pointed out, among other things, it called for allocation by the member states of a larger portion of their GDP for health, nutrition, population and related research in the region.
They also agreed to setting up of a regional institutional mechanism and establishment of national focal points within ministries of health and population, to facilitate effective implementation of decisions. The ministers also agreed to facilitate sharing of experiences, technical expertise and successes in the region in priority health and population areas within research, policy, programmes and health systems.
Moreover, while reiterating the decision of the first conference of Saarc Health Ministers, held in New Delhi, to enhance inter-country co-operation for emergency preparedness and regional disease surveillance, and for establishment of a Saarc Disease Surveillance Centre, and Rapid Deployment Health Response System, the Islamabad moot further committed to working for developing regional policies and programmes, as well as effective partnerships in order to check illegal trade in drugs and medicines and regional/inter-regional movement of spurious a sub-standard drugs and food, as well as encompassing narcotics, and psychotropic substances.
Significantly, their recommendations included protection, promotion and mainstreaming of the traditional systems of medicine in the healthcare delivery systems in the member countries, besides establishment of an expert group on population issues, under the mandate of technical committee on health and population, to strengthen co-operation, exchange of experiences, and policy dialogues in areas of family planning and reproductive health, with a view to achieving common agenda of ICPD and millennium development goals.
Moreover, they called upon all the stakeholders, including development partners, to complement the region's efforts in achieving millennium development goals, and addressing other priority health and population issues. In the technical session, they agreed to explore the options of designating a regional public health institute, and to strengthen regional mechanisms for exchange of faculty and students in disciplines of medical sciences and public health education.
The member countries expressed willingness to launch joint efforts for reducing the prices of medicines to facilitate poor population of the regional states. Elaborating on these, Nasir Khan pointed out that Pakistan and India have already started joint efforts to eradicate polio, saying such initiatives are needed to make South Asia a healthy region by controlling HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, communicable and non-communicable diseases too.
Viewed in the perspective of the 11-point agenda, which Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz floated in his inaugural address to the conference, with pointed focus on sharing best practices, encouraging scientific research, and creating a health system capable of responding to all emergencies, the Saarc Health Ministers will appear to have done a really good job.
For, while elaborating Pakistan's vision of Saarc, he had stated that it looked forward to providing better health care to the people, and to move towards the achievement of millennium development goals (MDGs). He had also urged the ministers to focus on concrete actions to institutionalise the mechanism by which best practices could be shared through mutual dependencies and linkages.
He had also called for looking at ways to use technology to improve quality of life and living conditions, while keeping the costs down. Again, calling for conceiving a health system encompassing health care, public health, community-based and population based interventions, he had sounded the need for shifting the emphasis from health care to health, a system that is fully equipped to responding to national or international disease outbreak situations.
Again, while acknowledging commendable progress made by some Saarc members, he had also identified major challenges facing the health sector such as slow progress in improving indicators relating to maternal health, child health, and morbidity and mortality caused by communicable diseases.
All in all, the decisions taken at the health conference, will appear to be much in conformity with his ideas and expectations, thereby, focusing on the advisability of the regional governments working together with the needed political will too.