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http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsId=50699#.VVd1THkw_mJ
MAJORITY OF RURAL POPULATIONS WITHOUT ESSENTIAL HEALTHCARE SERVICES – RURAL WOMEN – REPORT ON 174 COUNTRIES
Mobile health education van in rural Sri Lanka. Photo: World Bank/Dominic Sansoni
Direct Link to Full 83-Page ILO 2015 Report:
http://www.social-protection.org/gimi/gess/RessourcePDF.action?ressource.ressourceId=51297
27 April 2015 – The majority of the world’s rural populations
continue to live and work without essential healthcare services, in stark
contrast to their urban-dwelling counterparts, according to a new report
released today by the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO).
The ILO’s findings – published in the Global Evidence
on Inequities in Rural Health Protection Report – show that 56 per cent
of people living in rural areas worldwide remain bereft of critical healthcare
access, with the most acute instances being in Africa where an overwhelming 83
per cent of rural inhabitants are uncovered. The most affected countries are
also those which face the highest levels of poverty, the report observes.
“Decades of underinvestment in health interrupted efforts
to develop national health systems and ultimately resulted in the neglect of
health in rural areas,” Isabel Ortiz, Director of the ILO’s Social Protection
Department, confirmed in a press release.
“This study shows that investing in rural health, as part
of a national health system, is affordable and yields significant economic and
social returns,” she added. “Progress towards universal health protection is
possible in any country, irrespective of its level of income.”
At the same time, the report notes that even where
healthcare is guaranteed by law, many people in rural areas still struggle to
obtain access as such laws are frequently unenforced where they live. Moreover,
the situation is worsened by the lack of healthcare workers deployed to rural
regions. According to the ILO, in fact, while half the world’s population lives
in rural areas, only 23 per cent of the global health workforce is deployed in
these areas. Africa and Latin America are the two regions where this situation
is most acute.
In addition, persistent underfunding has also been found
to be linked to the unavailability of services with financial resource gaps
nearly twice as high in rural than in urban areas.
“The lack of legal coverage, insufficient numbers of
health workers, inadequate funding, and high [out-of-pocket payments] have
created life-threatening inequities in many countries,” explained Xenia
Scheil-Adlung, Health Policy Coordinator at the ILO.
“Strengthening both the demand and supply side of
services is crucial when moving towards universal health protection, particularly
in rural areas. Legal health coverage is necessary but not sufficient. Only
when quality services are actually made available and affordable for all those
in need can effective access to health care be ensured.”
In its report, the UN agency concludes that only through
a comprehensive and systematic approach that simultaneously addresses missing
rights, health workers, funding, financial protection and quality of care, can
the health access gaps in the world’s rural areas be finally bridged.
“Addressing such inequities needs to consider the
specific characteristics of rural populations, including high poverty rates and
informality of work,” Ms. Scheil-Adlung continued.
“This means moving from charity to rights, the provision
of health workers with decent working conditions that enhance productivity, and
the minimization of out-of-pocket payments by patients to avoid poverty. It
also requires complementary socio-economic and labour market policies to
trigger inclusive economic growth.”