Community Based Primary Health Care

Statement of Purpose

Approaches to improving the health of populations in developing countries continue to rely heavily on top-down, issue-specific strategies such as immunizations, child survival, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. While "top-down," issue-specific approaches are necessary in order to obtain the support of policymakers and donors, these approaches too often fail to give adequate attention to strengthening the health service delivery system at the community level, nor do they necessarily take the needs and interests of the local community into account. These "top-down," issue-specific approaches too often fail as well to give adequate attention to involving communities in making the health service delivery system more effective and to building the community's capacity to identify and address its own health problems. Read the complete statement here....

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