On 23 October 2023, WHO Regional Office for Europe, together with UNICEF and the Government of Kazakhstan, co-hosted an international conference to celebrate the 45th anniversary of Alma-Ata and 5th anniversary of Astana declarations on primary health care. The conference Primary health care policy and practice: implementing for better results was preceeded by a series of roundtables and virual session.
One of these pre-conference sessions, held on 28 September from 3 – 5 pm (CET), focused on "Reaching the marginalized through a PHC approach towards ending communicable diseases". It provided a platform for a dynamic conversation between WHO leadership, representatives from community based organizations and primary health care (PHC) professionals connecting strategies, community experiences and the PHC workforce.
Agenda
Introduction: Dr Meg Doherty, Director of the Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and STIs Programmes, WHO.
Presentation on Strategic challenges, opportunities and frameworks, Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall, Director Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Programme, WHO.
Panel: Rajendra Yadav (Coordinator, Integrated Communicable Diseases/ WPRO); Stella Bivol (Unit Lead, Joint Infectious Disease, EURO), and Ruben Mayorga, Senior Advisor, Civil Society Engagement for the Elimination of Communicable Diseases (AMRO).
Presentation on Opportunities for supporting a competent workforce for Primary Health Care- responding to our patients and communities, Margrieta Langins, Nursing and Midwifery Policy Adviser, EURO.
Q&A
Three presentations on community based projects:
1. Alto Xingu Health Connection: strengthening indigenous primary care networks, Dr Fernando Bozza, Senior Scientist and Physician (M.D., Ph.D.) at the National Institute of Infectious Disease Evandro Chagas (INI) of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Ministry of Health, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Dr Jessica Iaci, Family Psysician at Xingu Indigenous Special Health District, Brazil.
Q&A
2. The role of Drop In Centre in Public health in Ghana, Kofi Mawuena Diaba, WAPCAS-Ghana.
Q&A
3. Community Engagement: How Civil Society Can Link Rural Communities to Health Care: An example of Snakebite in Nepal, Dr Isabella C. Bassignana Khadka, Rotary Nepal.
Q&A
Concluding remarks: Professor Dr Jérôme Salomon, Assistant Director-General Universal Health Coverage/Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases, WHO.