TIME TO ACT
Dr. MANAOUDA MALACHIE Minister of Public Health
Travail Work
Paire Fatherland
PAIX PEACE
REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN
H.E. PAUL BIYA President of the Republic of Cameroon
We must, therefore, struggle for ever more effective and efficient health coverage. The health facilities available in this domain should serve the underprivileged segments of the population who are most economically weak. Accordingly, ongoing efforts are aimed not only at building more health centres and referral hospitals, but also providing, in these health centres and hospitals, more efficient, non-negotiable services without discrimination. We believe that this policy will resolutely lead to the setting-up of services that will constitute a true social security system.
AGENDA FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CAMEROONIAN HEALTH SYSTEM : TIME TO ACT
H.E. Joseph Dion Ngute Prime Minister Chief of the Government
Dr. MANAOUDA MALACHIE Minister of Public Health
AGENDA FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CAMEROONIAN HEALTH SYSTEM: TIME TO ACT
SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
According to the World Health Organisation, of which Cameroon is one of the Member States, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.
Meanwhile, Health in the broad sense involves a health system, which is the set of organisations, institutions, resources and people whose main objective is to improve health. The result is a notion of a system and legal, regulatory and procedural interactions, which are open to a binding environment.
For several decades Cameroon, together with the international community, successively acceded in 1978 to the ALMA ATA DECLARATION on the primary health-care strategy, the strengthening of the strategy by defining three levels of the health pyramid (Lusaka Conference, 1985) and adopted the Bamako initiative
on cost recovery, co-management and co-financing of health activities (Bamako Conference, 1987).
In 2000, Cameroon signed up to the 8 Millennium Development Goals. Thus, it drew up the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP, 2003) on the basis of which the health sector successively built the 2001-2010 Health Sector Strategy, then amended it to produce the 2009-2015 Health Sector Strategy. In the implementation of this strategy, the key link is the sustainable health district.
Access to quality basic social services for all
In 2009, the Cameroon Vision 2035, whose statement is “Cameroon: an emerging, democratic and united country in its diversity”, is divided into four intermediate objectives: (i) poverty reduction; (ii) attainment of the middle-income country stage; (iii) attainment of the Newly Industrialised Country stage; (iv) consolidation of the democratic process and national unity while respecting the diversity that characterises the country. In the health sector, the Vision is expressed by “access for all to quality basic social services”, including health; in its socio-demographic domain, the health sector objectives aim to increase average life expectancy by improving living conditions through the generalisation of the offer and quality of services, increasing national solidarity and the social protection of vulnerable persons.