Meeting on child health redesign in the WHO European Region (2018)

2018, v + 54 pages
ISBN  9789289053020
This publication is only available online.

Global child mortality fell by half to less than 6 million deaths annually by the end of the Millennium Development Goal period. WHO guidelines, such as the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), are assumed to have contributed to this. The transition to the Sustainable Development Goals framework provides an opportunity to reconsider and revise the global child health response to redesign programming on child health. As part of this process, WHO headquarters is jointly conducting consultations with its regional offices, key stakeholders and end-users. The consultation for the WHO European Region took place at a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark on 31 October–2 November 2017.

The main conclusions and recommendations emerging from the meeting were that the revisited child health approach will need to build on the results and lessons learnt from regional and global IMCI reviews. This will mean ending nonevidence- based practices, counteracting inappropriate medicalization and ending unnecessary treatment and hospitalization. Other recommendations focus on standards and competencies for primary care providers. The follow-up of recommendations and proposed work plan should be part of the 40th anniversary of the Alma-Ata Declaration in 2018.