Declaration of Alma-Ata
International Conference on Primary Health Care,
Alma-Ata, USSR, 6-12 September 1978
The
International Conference on Primary Health Care, meeting in Alma-Ata this twelfth day of September
in the year Nineteen hundred and seventy-eight, expressing the need for urgent
action by all governments, all health and development workers, and the world
community to protect and promote the health of all the people of the world,
hereby makes the following Declaration:
I
The Conference strongly reaffirms that
health, which is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, and
not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, is a fundamental human right
and that the attainment of the highest possible level of health is a most important
world-wide social goal whose realization requires the action of many other
social and economic sectors in addition to the health sector.
II
The existing gross inequality in the health
status of the people particularly between developed and developing countries as
well as within countries is politically, socially and economically unacceptable
and is, therefore, of common concern to all countries.
III
Economic and social development, based on a
New International Economic Order, is of basic importance to the fullest
attainment of health for all and to the reduction of the gap between the health status of the
developing and developed countries. The promotion and protection of the health
of the people is essential to sustained economic and social development and
contributes to a better quality of life and to world peace.
IV
The people have the right and duty to
participate individually and collectively in the planning and implementation of
their health care.
V
Governments have a responsibility for the
health of their people which can be fulfilled only by the provision of adequate
health and social measures. A main social target of governments, international
organizations and the whole world community in the coming decades should be the
attainment by all peoples of the world by the year 2000 of a level of health
that will permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life.
Primary health care is the key to attaining this target as part of development
in the spirit of social justice.
VI
Primary health care is essential health care
based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and
technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the
community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and
country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the
spirit of self-reliance and self-determination. It forms an integral part both
of the country's health system, of which it is the central function and main
focus, and of the overall social and economic development of the community. It
is the first level of contact of individuals, the family and community with the
national health system bringing health care as close as possible to where
people live and work, and constitutes the first element of a continuing health
care process.
VII
Primary health care:
1.
reflects and evolves from the economic
conditions and sociocultural and political
characteristics of the country and its communities and is based on the
application of the relevant results of social, biomedical and health services
research and public health experience;
2.
addresses the main health problems in
the community, providing promotive, preventive,
curative and rehabilitative services accordingly;