WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
ORGANISATION MONDIALE DE LA SANTE
REGIONAL OFFICE FOR
THE WESTERN PACIFIC
BUREAU R~GIONAL DU PACIFIQUE OCCIDENTAL
REGIONAL COMMITTEE
WPR/RC37fiNF.DOC./3
3 September 1986 Thirty-seventh session Manila J 5-19 September J 986 Provisional agenda item 14.1 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTIONS OF THE THIRTY-NINTH WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY AND THE EXECUTIVE BOARD AT ITS SEVENTY-SEVENTH AND SEVENTY-EIGHTH SESSIONS
INTERSECTORAL COOPERATION IN NATIONAL STRATEGIES FOR HEALTH
The Regional Director has the honour to
t~ansmit
to the Regional Committee for
the Western Pacific, for its information, a document concerning World Health Assembly resolution WHA39.22 on intersectoral cooperation in national strategies for health.
WPRfRC37 /INF.DOC./3 page 2
The promotion of health and prevention of diseases require health strategies which have the capacity to identify the health risks and conditions leading to ill-health within all the health-related sectors. While the primary responsibility for achieving health goals lies with the health sector and its agencies, a share of the responsibility at the same time devolves on other sectors. Although rnany of the important programmes on health like those in other sectors can be implemented within weJl-defined sectoral boundaries with a minimum of interaction between sectors, the major issues involving intersectora1 cooperation are nonetheless those important determinants of health which cut across sectoral boundaries. Such cooperation requires more extensive forms of policy coordination than those to which the health sector has been traditionaJJy accustomed. Examples of areas in which cooperation might be usefulJy developed are (a) agricultural policies which affect food availability; (b) policies on female education which could have a dramatic positive impact on child survival; and (c) industrial policies which might pose environmental pollution problems deleterious to health. The kind of intersectoral cooperation called for thus goes beyond the scope of current efforts whereby the health sector seeks inputs from other sectors into its own health care programmes and services. The approach calls on the health sector to coJJaborate more actively with other sectors in incorporating equity-oriented health goals and health criteria into their strategies, policies and programmes, for example, by promoting action for the eradication or reduction of ·the hard-core iJJ-health which is rooted in the extreme poverty affecting a large segment of the population. This dearly poses a chaJJenge to aU sectors of the socioeconomic system. The health sector can also assist development sectors in monitoring and evaluating the health impact of projects, so that negative health effects can be anticipated and countered, and the positive impact on health be strengthened and promoted. To undertake such a task wiJJ require major efforts by the health and related sectors. The national systems as a whole must have the capacity to perceive health as an integral part of the entire process of social and economic development. The health sector in particular needs to be able to take an overview of the changing health profile of the population and relate it to the socioeconomic changes that are taking place.