International Health Partnership

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The International Health Partnership (IHP+) is a global initiative administered by the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Established in 2007 as an initiative led by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the IHP+ aims to accelerate progress towards the health Millennium Development Goals by putting international principles on aid effectiveness and development cooperation into practice in the health sector.[1][2][3] IHP+ mobilizes national governments, development agencies, civil society and others to support a single, country-led national health strategy in a well-coordinated way.[4]

Contents

History and Principles of the IHP+ [edit]

Improving health and health services involves governments, health workers, civil society, parliamentarians and other stakeholders working together. In developing countries, money for health comes from both domestic and external resources. This means that governments must also work with a range of international development partners. These partners are increasing in number, use different funding streams and have diverse bureaucratic demands. As a result, development efforts can become fragmented and resources can be wasted.

The 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness is a set of principles based on years of experience of what makes aid and development cooperation effective. It is based on five, mutually reinforcing pillars - ownership, alignment, harmonization, mutual accountability and managing for results. The Accra Agenda for Action (2008), which came out of the Third High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (2011) build on the Paris Declaration.

IHP+ was launched in September 2007 in order to put these international principles into practice in the health sector. The Partnership aims to do so by encouraging wide support for a single national health strategy and a single monitoring and evaluation framework, in addition to placing an emphasis on partner mutual accountability.[5] The initiative arose from pre-existing developments aimed at improving health outcomes and improving aid effectiveness, including the High-level Forum (HLF) on the Health MDGs, the post-HLF process, and the HLF on Aid Effectiveness.[6]

IHP+ Partners [edit]

IHP+ has partners from around the world including developing countries, donor countries and international agencies. Originally, 26 signatories including 7 countries, 18 bilateral and multilateral partners, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation signed the IHP+ Global Compact [7] for achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals. The Global Compact is the initiative's foundational global document that is signed by all partner countries, international agencies and bilateral donors when they join the IHP+. The Compact sets out the goals and approach of IHP+ and contains collective and individual commitments by signatories to adhere to agreed aid effectiveness principles. Signatories agree to support country and government-led national health plans. Currently, there are 56 signatories to the Global Compact (as of May 2012).

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play an important role in IHP+ at both the country and global level. At the country level, civil society encompasses patient groups, health workers, medical or health unions and associations, faith-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, academic institutions, media, advocacy groups, refugees, women, youth and other neglected or vulnerable groups. At the global level, civil society is included in IHP+ governance bodies. The Executive Team and Scaling-up Reference Group each include one northern and one southern civil society representative, who draw on a Civil Society Consultative Group of up to 12 civil society members, to discuss IHP+ related issues and activities. IHP+ thematic working groups also include civil society representation. IHP+ supports a small grants programme for southern CSOs called the Health Policy Action Fund. This is designed to strengthen the capacity of southern CSOs so that they can engage more meaningfully with national health policy processes.

In addition, IHP+ collaborates with related initiatives including Harmonization for Health in Africa (HHA); the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA); H8;[8] Health Metrics Network (HMN); Providing for Health (P4H); and follow-up activities of the Commission for Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health (COIA).

Key Issues [edit]

IHP+ encourages partners to work in five areas that help to plan and implement a national health strategy. These include:

  • More inclusive national health planning and joint assessment (JANS) processes. JANS is a shared approach to assess the strengths and weaknesses of a national health strategy or plan.
  • More unified support to national plans through country compacts. Country compacts are written commitments made by government and development partners that describe how they will work together to improve health outcomes.
  • One monitoring and evaluation platform to track strategy implementation. A common country platform for monitoring and reviewing the implementation of a national health strategy can help overcome both poor quality & incomplete data and the time-consuming reporting processes of different partners.
  • Greater mutual accountability. The IHP+ Global Compact calls for an independent assessment of results at country level and of the performance of each signatory (individually, as well as collectively). IHP+ Results, an independent consortium, implements an agreed monitoring framework with indicators based on the Paris Declaration.
  • Improved civil society engagement.

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Britain launches global healthcare plan for poor countries", ABC News (Australia), September 6, 2007.
  2. ^ "Brown launches global health plan", Associated Press in The Hindu, September 5, 2007.
  3. ^ Bobby Ramakant, "International Health Partnership to strengthen health systems", Asian Tribune, September 11, 2007.
  4. ^ "What results can be expected from the new agenda for aid effectiveness?", October 2011
  5. ^ McCoy, David (2011). "The IHP+: a welcome initiative with an uncertain future". The Lancet 377 (9780): 1835–1836. 
  6. ^ Hill, Peter S (2012). "Development cooperation for health: reviewing a dynamic concept in a complex global health aid environment". Globalization and Health 8 (5). Retrieved 1 October 2012. 
  7. ^ PDF signed version from the Global Compact
  8. ^ H8 stands for Health eight, an informal gathering of eight international agencies coming together to improve their effectiveness in providing health in Low and Middle Income Countries.Composed of the WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNAIDS, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, GAVI Alliance, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Bank

External links [edit]

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