CM/Res.1104 (XLVI)
RESOLUTION
ON HEALTH AS A COMPONENT OF DEVELOPMENT
The Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, meeting in its Forty-sixth Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 20 to 25 July 1987,
Recalling the stipulation of the Lagos Plan of Action and Final Act of Lagos, Africa’s Priority Programme for Economic Recovery (1986 -1990),
Having examined the report of the Secretary-General on the proceedings of the second ordinary session of the African Ministers of Health held in Cairo, Egypt, from 26 to 30 April 1987, document CM/1438 (XLVI),
Mindful of the urgent need to ensure that the African people have the opportunity to attain by the year 2000, a level of health which will permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life, through primary health care programmes,
Convinced that health and socio-economic development initiatives can both be organized within the same administrative framework and under the same leadership in decentralized local government areas or districts,
Recognizing that the responsibility for development of agriculture, food, health and nutrition and related aspects of national development in Africa lies primarily with Member States themselves,
Cognizant of the fact that insufficient technical, financial, material and human resources constitute an impediment to the implementation of the resolutions, recommendations and declarations of the various African and international bodies concerning the African continent:
ENDORSES in its entirety the “Declaration on Health as a Foundation for Development” agreed upon and put forward by the African Ministers of Health;
FURTHER ENDORSES all the recommendations and resolutions of the Second Ordinary Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Health, Cairo, Egypt, April, 1987;
URGES Member States to reinforce existing mechanisms for administrative decentralization, inter-sectoral co-operation, and the selection of affordable effective technologies;
ENCOURAGES Member States to support local initiatives in mobilizing additional resources, (human, material and financial), for both health and development in communities living in decentralized local government areas and districts, and to ensure the provision of earmarked regular funds for health development at these peripheral levels;
FURTHER URGES member States to:
collaborate effectively among themselves and with Organizations working towards the implementation of the Decade of Safe Drinking Water and Sewage Disposal 1980 – 1990, as well as in other aspects of sound environmental management;
implement the 1985 UN General Assembly Declaration of intent made on the occasion of the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the UN and the World Health Assembly resolution No. 35.31 of 14th May, 1982 to immunize all children by 1990;
work closely with WHO, UNIDO, inter-governmental, non- governmental organizations and other interested national agencies towards the establishment of scientifically sound pharmaceutical industries in Africa with particular emphasis on local African production for self-reliance in drug industries;
REQUESTS the Secretary-General to continue his commendable efforts in the field of Health Development in Africa and to strengthen his co-
operation with the World Health Organization to ensure that the goal of “Health for All by the Year 2000” becomes a reality;
CALLS UPON the international community, relevant organs, organizations and bodies of the United Nations System the international financial institutions and non-governmental organizations working in the field of health and development to give their full financial and technical support to the promotion and realization of health development in Africa, within the framework of national programmes for economic recovery.