• health policies and all other topics

The Declaration of Alma Ata was a watershed moment in global health. Indeed, in the four decades since its launch, there is a sense in which all declarations or communiques issued at global health conferences have been aiming for comparable historical impact. Launched in 1978 at the International Conference on Primary Health Care, the declaration called for ‘Health for All by the Year 2000’1 and promoted comprehensive primary healthcare as the preferred backbone of national health systems alongside a number of other key elements including an emphasis on global cooperation and peace; a new economic order to underpin it; acknowledgement of the social determinants of health; involvement of all sectors in the promotion of health; community participation in planning, implementation and regulation of primary healthcare; and a focus on achieving equity in health status. In totality, these elements—which became known as the ‘primary healthcare approach’—flagged a paradigm shift away from the medical model of health planning and service delivery and towards a ‘social model’ with an emphasis on addressing social determinants of health via intersectoral public health and preventive strategies based on local ownership and community participation.

Convened by WHO and UNICEF, the International Conference on Primary Health Care was held in Alma Ata (presently called Almaty, in Kazakhstan), in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, during the Cold War; a battle between the worldviews of Western …