Introduction
Many current health events have given emphasis on the importance of having a global Millennium Development Health plan. This involves Health Policies that are intended to be a vehicle for the exploration and discussion of health issues.
The main aim of global Millennium Development Health plan is to enhance communication between health policy researchers, legislators, decision-makers and professionals concerned with developing, implementing, and analyzing health issues (Weaver, 2011, May 3). The plan is a guide for the overall health improvement internationally and not just for specific countries.
Main Body
The global Millennium Development Health plan is guided by the international Health Policy Framework. This policy framework is based on the analysis of international health situation to provide guidance on the policy objectives that the sector needs in order to achieve goals of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing of mankind (Ricciardelli, 2009).
The global Millennium Development Health plan has its strategic theme as ‘Investing in health’.
Its overall stated goal is ‘To promote and Improve the health of all people internationally through the deliberate restructuring of the health sectors in different countries and make all health services more effective, accessible and affordable’ (Ricciardelli, 2009). This information can always be found in the current health events related to international Health Policy.
In some African countries, strategic imperatives have been identified as the key policy objectives in their health sector. They will also work towards the achievement of the global Millennium Development Health plan. These imperatives are:
- To ensure equitable allocation of resources for involved countries in order to reduce disparities in health status.
- To Increase the cost effectiveness and the cost efficiency of their resource allocation and use.
- The countries involved will be required to control their population growth.
The above policy objectives will form the basis for prioritization of strategic objectives in the subsequent strategic plans which will specifically focus on defining strategies for;
- Strengthening governance.
- Improving resource allocation.
- Decentralisation of health services and management.
- Shifting of resources from curative to preventive.
However, it is expected that the overall implementation may not manage to make a breakthrough in terms of transforming the critical health sector interventions and operations towards meeting the most significant targets and indicators of health as expected by the plan (Ricciardelli, 2009).
Nevertheless the global Millennium Development Health plan has its goals to contribute to the reduction of health inequalities and to reverse the downward trend in health related impact and outcome indicators. Its strategic objectives in this case will be;
- To increase equitable access to health services.
- To improve quality and the responsiveness of services in Health.
- To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery for international Health.
The global Millennium Development Goals are signed up to guide prioritization of countries as they move towards improvement and development in their health sectors. Scaling up universal access to cost effective interventions that tackle key causes of ill health and death are also being polished (Villegas, 2010, May 13).
Interventions addressing the burden of disease due to malaria, TB, HIV, immunization amongst others have been scaled up significantly particularly in the past 10 years but still they need to be improved.
Conclusion
For the global Millennium Development Health plan to work out well, a strong guide line is needed for the process towards its generation. This process involves both qualitative and quantitative methods to generate and apply information.
Qualitative methods involve group interview techniques that generate perceptions of clients, service providers and managers on key aspects that will be analyzed. The Quantitative methods on the other hand will involve desk reviews of key reports and data available for different aspects being analyzed.
References
Ricciardelli, M. (2009) Health Law and Policy Program. Health reform watch, 9, 10.
Villegas, A. (2010, May 13) Public Health Policy. Science daily, 06. 13-18.
Weaver, C. (2011, May 3) Global Millennium Development Health plan. The standard news, pp. 21.