“Accurate and timely health data are the foundation to improving public health. Without reliable information to set priorities and measure results, countries and their development partners are working in the dark,” WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan told theMeasurement and Accountability for Results in Health Summit, meeting from today through 11 June in Washington, D.C.
WHO, together with the World Bank and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is leading the international collaboration to improve support for countries to have strong health information systems.
At the summit, dozens of global health leaders from governments, multilaterals, academia, research institutions and civil society will endorse The Roadmap for Health Measurement and Accountability and a 5-Point Call to Action, which outline a shared strategic approach and priority actions and targets that countries and development partners can use to put effective health monitoring plans in place.
Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, said, “Today’s investments in country health information systems will lead to a better tomorrow for billions of people.”
Also on Tuesday, WHO and partners launched the Global Reference List of 100 Core Health Indicators to improve measurement and accountability for global public health.
The aim of the list, according to WHO, is to reduce excessive and duplicative reporting requirements that currently burden countries and improve harmonization, and serve as “a global standard for health data collection in countries and align global health partners.”
In her address to the health summit, Dr. Chan referred to the “post-2015 development agenda” and its emphasis on transparency, accountability, and measureable results is increasing every day.
“But measurement and accountability depend on data that simply do not exist in the countries we are serving,” she said.