Health Information ‘tribes’ unite behind Bangkok Call to Action
05 February 2010
Champions of better health information from 80 countries came together in a rousing closing ceremony at the Global Health Information Forum in Bangkok last Saturday, 30 January, to adopt a Call to Action to improve health information systems at global, national and local levels.
“This first global conference on health information has been a tremendous success,” said Dr. Sally Stansfield, Executive Secretary of HMN, in her final remarks at the plenary session, “It has brought together a large and diverse number of tribes who share the goal of better information and better health for all. I look forward to future opportunities to bring us together as one community.”
The Call to Action affirms the role of health information systems in improving health and effectiveness of health spending, noting that the current state of country health information systems are inadequate and fail to meet the needs of decision-makers globally, nationally and locally. It also notes the importance of achieving equitable distribution of health outcomes, an impossible goal without the evidence-base upon which to target resources at those most in need. The Call goes on to define a number of principles to guide future progress on health information, including transparency of data, good governance, investment, capacity building, harmonization and integration. There is special mention of the need to improve birth and death registration systems, an area that has seen virtually no progress in recent decades.
The Call to Action adopted in Bangkok builds further momentum for strengthening health information systems following last week’s publication of a Call for Action on Health Data by the ‘H8’ heads of global health organizations. Leaders from WHO, the World Bank, The Global Fund, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA, GAVI and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called for ‘new ways of working and a more systematic approach by all partners….. to better monitor and evaluate progress and performance,’ emphasizing the need to strengthen country capacity to collect, process, analyze and use health data. Agency heads committed to global action to increase levels and efficiency of investments in health information, to achieve a common data architecture, to strengthen performance monitoring and evaluation and to increase data access and use.
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Bangkok Call to Action
pdf, 42kb - To read the H8 Call for Action on Health Data, please follow this link.
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