Abstract

Information Technology for Development Volume 4 Number 4 . © 1989 Oxford University Press. Strengthening Primary Health Care Programme Management through Informatics and Improved Management information Systems Ronald G. Wilson Aga Khan Foundation* 1. A major PHC The International Conference on Primary Health Care (PHC), held in Alma Ata, USSR, in 1978, launched a management challenge: achieve global eflFort to attain the goal of a level of health for all the high coverage at low people of the world by the year 2000 that will permit them cost to lead a socially and economically productive life. Primary Health Care, based on principles of equity, universal coverage, cultural acceptability, appropriateness and affordability, was identified as the key to achieving an acceptable level of health throughout the world in the foreseeable future. While substantial progress on implementing PHC programmes has been made in the past decade, the fundamental economic and social conditions which led to the global health for all (HFA) strategy persist. Resources for equitable provision of basic health care for large populations without access to health services remain inadequate and this situation is worsening and unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future. In May 1989, a World Health Organization