FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

IHP and related initiatives

1. What is the Global Campaign for the Health MDGs and how does the IHP relate to it?

The Global Campaign for the Health MDGs is a programme to a recognition of the need for urgent and collective action to address the off-track health MDGs and to help sustain this high level momentum through 2015. The IHP was only the first of a range of initiatives to be launched under the Global Campaign for the Health MDGs umbrella

2. What other initiatives are there working alongside the IHP?

There are a range of initiatives working alongside the IHP under the umbrella of the Global Campaign for the Health MDGs that aim to strengthen national health systems in order to meet the health-related MDGs in line with the principals of the Paris Declaration. These include the Norwegian Prime Minister's initiative on child and maternal mortality, the Heiligendamm G8 'Providing for Health' initiative and the Canadian 'Catalytic Initiative to Save a Million Lives'. The Health 8 leaders agreed to coordinate the implementation of these initiatives, and this is happening through a common IHP+ workplan that is managed by a joint steering group, the Scaling-up Reference Group (SuRG) that provides oversight, coordination and a steering function and an inter-agency IHP+ Core Team based in Washington, DC, Geneva, and Brazzaville that oversees the workplan and the day-to-day coordination of work.

3. Why do we need the IHP+?

Half-way to 2015, progress towards meeting the health-related MDGs is off-track. The IHP+ will help us focus on health-related outcomes. Better coordination is crucial to achieve these goals. It is vital that we make more effective use of the development assistance already being provided through improved coordination. Comprehensive and strengthened health systems are the basis by which effective health care can be delivered in developing countries and ultimately results achieved. IHP+ will provide a mechanism for a more balanced joint effort to improve health services as a whole.