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Health is global: the launch  

  • Last modified date:
    26 May 2009

Health is global: the launch

Health is global: a UK Government strategy 2008-13 was launched in September 2008 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 breadth of challenges in global health.

It outlines a set of principles and actions that the UK Government will focus on over the next five years, with the aim of improving health across the world.

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.

For the first time, the Government has mapped out 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 consistency in Government policy and identifies ways to work more effectively with our partners to improve healthcare.

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 a global health strategy that will benefit the UK population and the rest of the world. 

It opened a discussion on the current global health priorities and what the UK should focus on.

Comments were invited on the following questions:

  • prioritising 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 UK action can help solve.

    Are these the right priority areas for action?
  • We have highlighted specific questions in Chapter 5 and we would be interested in your response.

Stakeholder workshops were held to discuss the strategy.

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