Good health is vital to reducing poverty and to ensuring the sustainable development of humanity. In the poorest parts of the world, the number of people suffering from poor health is still unacceptably high and this is a conspicuous obstacle to social and economic progress. The level of development of a society, rich or poor, can be judged by the quality of its population’s health and by the fairness of the distribution of good health, across the entire social spectrum.

For this reason, the Third Master Plan for Spanish Cooperation states that health is a fundamental human right and a key element in fair and sustainable development. This concept of health includes poverty reduction, which is a public  responsibility, at both local and international levels.

The European Council conclusions on "the EU role in Global Health" represent a new framework for cooperation in the field of healthcare, and the AECID approach to this question is intended to underpin Spain’s role as a leading player in world health issues.

Given the significant and growing volume of resources and effort that Spain is dedicating to global health ODA, our country and AECID in particular has a special responsibility, in the international context, regarding development cooperation in health. Therefore, AECID also seeks to maintain its leading position as a contributor to global health benefit, emphasising the need for AECID to represent a significant element within Spanish ODA in health. What we wish to see is “more AECID in health and better health in AECID”.

With a view to internal coherence in our cooperation, the AECID focus on health is also intended to project the added value gained from health projects in our own country toward cooperation abroad. AECID cooperation is based on the values of solidarity, fairness and social justice inherent to our domestic health system, which therefore underlie our interventions in international health cooperation operations.

These values translate into a health cooperation focused on: (1) universal, fair coverage of services and social protection; (2) democratic ownership of health; (3) policy coherence for development, and in particular a health focus in all policies; and (4) universal access to knowledge and innovation in global health, which is accepted as a universal good.

Strategically, AECID is committed to an integrated, inclusive approach, one enabling the institutional strengthening of national health systems as the linchpin to ensure that public health institutions, with the active participation of the population, have the ability to exercise stewardship and control and thus ensure coverage, fairness, sustainability and the positive impact of health actions.

The sectoral approach in AECID
 

- Sectoral Action Plan for Health – abbreviated text
- Sectoral Action Plan for Health– full text
- Sectoral fact sheets
- Sectoral action plans