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Global health strategy

  • Last modified date:
    8 December 2008

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Developments under the Global Health Strategy

8 December 2008

The first national guidance on ethical procurement in healthcare was published for consultation.

3 December 2008

The Foreign Secretary signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Norway on behalf of the UK.

Global Health Strategy presentation

Published: 2 December 2008

This PowerPoint presentation is for use by individuals inside and outside Government who wish to promote the Global Health Strategy.

Health is global: the launch

On Tuesday 30 September, Health is Global: a UK Government Strategy 2008 – 13 was launched at Portcullis House, London by the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, Minister of State for Public Health, Dawn Primarolo, Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Mark Malloch Brown, and Gillian Merron, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development.

The launch was co-hosted by the Lancet medical journal, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Chatham House. Health is Global is the first cross-government strategy to highlight the breath of challenges that face all of us in the area of global health. It outlines a set of principles and actions that the UK Government will focus on over the next five years to improve health across the world, including the UK, in partnership with others.

The strategy has been led by a cross-government Interministerial Group chaired by Dawn Primarolo. The secretariat is based in the Department of Health’s International Division.

Health is Global is an international first. It goes beyond what others have done by mapping where global health issues arise across a whole range of government business including security, development, trade, the way with work with international institutions and how we build evidence for action more effectively.

The strategy highlights the importance of coherence and consistency in government policy and identifies ways to work even more effectively with our partners to deliver better health outcomes. Commitments set out in Health is Global will be taken forward by lead government departments in the coming months and years.

Health is Global discussion

The report 'Health is Global: Proposals for a UK Government-wide Strategy' was published in March 2007. It made the case for developing a global health strategy, one that will benefit the health of the UK population and those in the rest of the world; it provided a framework for developing a global health strategy and marked the beginning of a period of discussion on what are the current global health priorities, what the UK should focus on and what the global health strategy should look like.

Comments were invited on proposals for a UK Government-wide global health strategy, in particular on the following questions:

1.     We will not be able to focus on every issue in the strategy so we need to identify the key priorities to focus on. We have identified the following four areas:

  • global health risks that threaten the health of the UK population
  • global health solutions in which the UK has particular expertise
  • global health opportunities that benefit the UK
  • global health problems that the UK action can help solve

Are these the right priority areas for action?

2.     We have also highlighted a number of specific questions in Chapter 5 of the report to help us think through the issues for the global health strategy and develop a coherent response. We would be interested in hearing your initial responses to these questions.

Stakeholder workshops were also held to discuss the strategy.

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