Objectives

The Western Area Health Initiative has two key objectives:

• To improve the health status of the population in the three target regions of Shaanxi, Chongqing and Guangxi;
• To place health high on the political agenda and establish effective multi-sectoral cooperation to improve health.

Specifically, the Western Area Health Initiative’s objectives are:

• To strengthen health information management systems in the three selected provinces;
• To systematically and scientifically develop provincial health profiles, and revise these annually;
• To strengthen health systems, and promote public hospital reform;
• To strengthen health policy development and implementation through multi-sectoral collaboration;
• To implement priority health interventions for both rural and urban areas; and to achieve rural and urban integration to reduce health inequities;
• To strengthen capacity building among the health officials and health professionals at the national and sub-national level;
• To expand and upscale best practices from eastern areas to the west and to promote health development in western China.