ABUJA EVENT

Statement from the Consultation of Regional Institutions and Networks on High Level Task Force on Innovative International Finacing for Health Systems
Abuja, Nigeria, 26 May 2009
Since the establishment of the High Level Task Force, representatives of Civil Society from across the world have been discussing the financing of essential and equitable health cae for all. This statement represents a compilation of the key views and themes developed by civil society groups as well as a brief respose to the latest reports of the Task Force’s two Working Groups.
The nature of our times lends a special urgency to the work of the Task Force. More than halfway to 2015, all of the health Millennium Development Goals lies drastically behind schedule, and at risk of failure. The various health crises around the world, and particularly in Africa, represent an injustice, and failure of governance and economic policy. According to the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, the crises are not in any sense a ‘natural’ phenomenon, but the result of “a toxic combination of poor social policies and programmes, unfair economic arrangements, and bad politics”.
The allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars, essentially to bail out the banking sector and primarily to sustain the high�consumption economies of developed countries, puts into context the relatively modest requirements for universal access to essential health care.

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