Primary Health Care and Selective PHC

In 1978 at the joint World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) conference in Alma Ata, the principles of primary health care (PHC) were formally established. The approach has since been endorsed as the strategy to achieve ‘Health for all by the year 2000’. The recommendations of the Alma Ata conference were seen as a breakthrough in official policy formulation, for they stemmed from an explicit recognition that the promotion of health depends upon improving socio-economic conditions and the alleviation of poverty. By highlighting the environmental, social and economic determinants of health status, the Alma Ata declaration recognized that health could not be attained by the health sector alone. The strategy called for an intersectoral approach that addressed the broader issue of underdevelopment. ¹