July 2021 – February 2022
Globally, poverty tends to have a rural face. Extreme poverty continues to be overwhelmingly rural, accounting for almost 4 in 5 people living in extreme poverty. Multidimensional poverty is also more intense in rural areas; of the 1.3 billion people who are multidimensionally poor, 1.1 billion people—84.2 percent—live in rural areas. The shared UN framework for action: Equality and non-discrimination at the heart of sustainable development explicitly calls out the need to do more to address the needs of people experiencing extreme poverty, including in rural areas.
Given the critical relationship between poverty and health, health and health service coverage indicators can be worse amongst rural and poor populations for many conditions. These health inequities are the result of adverse social and environmental determinants experienced by the rural poor, as well as weaker health systems in rural areas. Poor rural health system performance both compounds and contributes directly to health inequities. Member States governments have recognized that the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development depends crucially on the transformation of rural areas. Moreover, they have acknowledged that primary health care-oriented health systems strengthening, including in rural areas, is fundamental for equitable progress towards Universal Health Coverage, a means of eradicating poverty, and of achieving other Sustainable Development Goals.
World Health Assembly resolution 72.2 on primary health care calls on all stakeholders to provide support to Member States in mobilizing human, technological, financial and information resources to help to build strong and sustainable primary health care (PHC), as envisaged in the Declaration of Astana. In support of a “rural proofed” progressive universalism approach to health systems strengthening and PHC, WHO is hosting a global Webinar series on “Rural Health Equity”. This webinar series is convened under the umbrella of year-long celebrations for World Health Day 2021, dedicated to health equity. In addition, a parallel special edition of a scientific journal is under production, for release in 2022.
Objectives
- To highlight key issues relevant to strengthening primary health care in rural and remote areas;
- To share knowledge, tools/resources, and promising practices, from a range of countries globally, for addressing rural health inequities;
- To explore the role of “rural proofing” health policies, strategies and programmes to ensure that the needs of the rural poor are adequately addressed.
Participants
The webinar series will be open for participation of representatives from Governments, WHO and other UN system regional and country offices, members of international professional organizations, civil society and partners working in rural health equity.
Organizers
The webinar series is organized by the Gender, Equity and Human Rights Team in the Office of the Director General, WHO/HQ, working in close collaboration with the Special Programme on Primary Health Care, and - for specific webinars – the Health Workforce Department, Health Government and Financing Department, Social Determinants of Health Department and the Health Inequality Monitoring team. WHO Regional and Country Offices and other relevant HQ Departments will collaborate for specific webinars.
External partners include:
- The Rural Working Party of the World Organization of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners/Family Physicians;
- Select UN systems counterparts that are part of the rural poverty sub-group of the UN HLCP Inequalities Task Team (this is co-led by WHO, FAO and IFAD and includes also representatives from ILO, ITU, UNDP, UNDCO, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNDESA, UN Indigenous Peoples Section, UNWOMEN and UN Peacebuilding and Partnerships branch);
- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD);
- Academic centres working on rural health in a range of universities globally.
Presentations for country-specific case studies will also be featured, with their presentation being done by Member State governments, civil society organizations or other partners.