Who's program of health for all by the year 2000: A macrosystem for health policy making—A challenge to social science research

Abstract

The 151 member nations of the World Health Organization (WHO) have set the goal of HFA/2000. Far from being rhetoric alone, this concept has emerged from a series of ideas and trends that have been evolving over the last two decades, such as: changing ideas on the nature of development; increasing importance given to social justice and equity; recognition of the central role of communities in development; the emergence of primary health care; the importance of political will; etc. WHO is engaging all member nations in the process of formulating national strategies for achieving Health for All, and will use those as the basis for a global strategy. Such a global strategy will serve, in turn, as guidelines for subsequent revisions of national strategies as this international process proceeds. WHO has a well-established network of national, regional and global offices together with a well coordinated series of governing bodies that provide the possibility of formulating and pursuing international health policies. It can be called an international macrosystem for health policy formulation, and it would seem to provide an important opportunity for social sciences research. Health for All is clearly an important movement that may well have major influence on international and national health policies and programs over the next two decades. Yet we have only a limited understanding of the process that is under way: the historical roots from which it has emerged, the major forces that guide it, the structures and relationships that contain it, the nature of the momentum that drives it, and what might become of the Health for All movement itself in terms of its own evolutionary process. These areas of uncertainty and the questions that surround them could be fruitful areas for social sciences research.