Strategic Plan for Strengthening Health Systems in the Western Pacific Region
Weak health systems have been identified as obstacles to improving health and achieving international health targets such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and realizing the lofty principles of Primary Health Care outlined so articulately at Alma-Ata in 1978. Increased international assistance in health has helped achieve results, but it also has contributed to increasing fragmentation of the health sector and highlighted the need for more holistic approaches to health systems. "Everybody's Business: Strengthening Health Systems to Improve Health Outcomes" is a framework for action developed by the WHO Secretariat to guide its work. A "Strategic Plan for Strengthening Health Systems in the WHO Western Pacific Region" has been developed as a regional response to "Everybody's Business" in an effort to make it more operational and to guide the work of the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific in general and the Division of Health Sector Development specifically.