History

Health Poverty Action was founded 25 years ago by a group of British doctors working for large aid organisations in Afghanistan. They recognised the strong link between health and conflict. Front lines make headlines, but over the longer term the impact of conflict on health claims more lives than bullets. 

We began providing healthcare in Southern Afghanistan in 1984 during the Soviet war. During conflicts it is the poorest and most marginalised who suffer most, often living in the most remote and inaccessible areas. This has led us to work in some very difficult environments, often providing the only external assistance to marginalised people, including:

• Remote communities in southern Afghanistan during the conflict of the 1980s and early 1990s
• The Karen, Kachin and Wa in the hills of Burma for more than 15 years

The Alma-Ata principles

In 1978 a UN Conference on Primary Health Care met in Alma-Ata, which is now in Kazakhstan. Its declaration included ground-breaking principles that were a historic achievement for the activists who struggled for them and the officials who negotiated and agreed the declaration.

“The existing gross inequality in the health status of the people, particularly between developed and developing countries, as well as within countries, is politically, socially and economically unacceptable and is, therefore, of common concern to all…”
Alma-Ata Declaration, September 1978

The principles laid down at Alma-Ata include:

• A commitment to accessible and appropriate comprehensive primary healthcare
• The importance of a multi-sectoral approach such as improving household food security and access to clean water, providing education, strengthening the voice of women and economic development
• The principle of equality and a rights-based approach
• The use of technology and techniques that are socially and culturally acceptable
• Accountability and community involvement
• Campaigning for economic justice, peace and reduced military expenditure – with environmental issues a certain addition for today’s context.

Thirty years on, Health Poverty Action's beliefs and values today still resonate very strongly with these principles. They provide a powerful tool with which to hold governments and decision-makers to account, and with which to challenge ourselves.
 

How far we have come

Health Poverty Action now works in 12 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. We have developed strong relationships with many indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities struggling for survival or caught up in conflicts, including:

• the San in Namibia
• the Maya K’iche’ in Guatemala in the aftermath of the civil war
• the Quechua in Peru
• the Bunong, Jarai, Kreung and Tapoeun in Cambodia
• the Taleang, Tampoeun and Oye in the southern Lao PDR

We continue to work with the communities everyone else has forgotten.