Centre for Public Health and Equity

CPHE has been involved with promoting comprehensive primary health care at three levels

Engagement with the World Health Organisation

CPHE along with many other People’s Health Movement partners has been actively advocating a revitalization of comprehensive primary health care policy by WHO. This ‘back to Alma Ata’ campaign has been quite successful. Some highlights of our engagement with WHO are:

• As a host of the PHM Global Secretariat, CHC in 2003 put together Health For All Now! – 25 years of Alma Ata, a compilation of reflections on Health For All experiences and challenges which became a resource material for training in public health and human rights in several universities.

• Primary health care seminar (April 2007)  and round table at World Health Assembly, Geneva (May 2007).

• Planning of World Health Report 2008 on primary health care (Bellagio, September 2007) and external review of the report (Montreux, May 2008).

• Inputs into primary health care international conferences  at Buenos Aires in October 2007 and Almaty, Kazakhstan in October 2008.

• WHO SEARO policy review on community based health workers (2007).

Supporting research in comprehensive primary health care

CPHE has been the Asian hub of a Teasdale Corti supported research study entitled Revitalising Health For All: Learning From Comprehensive Primary Health Care Experiences. The highlights of this project so far have been

• A systematic review of Asian primary health care experiences by Dr. Vinay Vishwanath, a CHC researcher.

• A planning and networking workshop on the systematic reviews from different regions held in Johannesburg, South Africa attended by Dr. Thelma Narayan and Dr. Vinay Vishwanath.

• A research methodology training workshop for development of protocols by research teams from Bangladesh, India, Iran and Pakistan.

• Mentoring of research teams as they evolve their research projects.

• Dr. Thelma Narayan attended the 2nd Teasdale Corti Team Grants Meeting in Cairo, Egypt in October 2009.

Participation in policy dialogue on comprehensive primary health care in India

• CPHE has been involved intensively with the National Rural Health Mission

• Dr. Ravi Narayan has been a member of the Planning Commission Steering Group on Primary Health Care in 2006.

• Dr. Ravi Narayan was a member of the Steering Group of the Planning Commission on the Integration of AYUSH with Public Health Systems and an expert consultant to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on AYUSH and public health initiatives. A Stakeholders Workshop was facilitated by CPHE and the Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT) in 2008.

• Dr. Ravi Narayan has been part of the dialogue with experts, academic and civil society on the Mid Term Appraisal of the Eleventh Plan in September 2009.