World Health Day 2011: resistance and resilience (07-04-2011)

The WHO calls upon policy makers and policy implementers to make a joint effort to prevent a situation in which we return to the pre antibiotics era. Today the WHO publishes a short action document to achieve this.

The Dutch Government’s focus is in particular on self-exposure in her development policy. Sectors in which ‘The Netherlands’  excels, such as water management and food security, are priority. On the day that health is internationally high on everyone’s agenda HealthNet TPO asks attention for health in a broader perspective. It seems that the Dutch Government defines health in terms of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). For HealthNet TPO this focus is too narrow. HealthNet TPO focuses on more than SRHR where health is not a goal on its own but a means to make people in crisis zones resilient. This way of working takes a lot of effort. Partnerships are not only entered with the WHO and Foreign Affairs but also include trade & industry and academic institutions. This process leads to an holistic approach: an approach that is innovative and where thematic limitations are not the starting-point.

World Health Day 2011 is the perfect day to ask worldwide attention for health in all its facets. When taking the milleniumgoals into consideration – that have to be accomplished in 2015 – it is of great importance that health is high on everyone’s agenda.