NGOs will actively advocate with civil society, local institutions and donors for policies and programs that strengthen health systems overall. NGOs recognize that vertical programs and selective approaches exacerbate inequities in health systems and ignore underlying determinants of health. We also recognize that funding conditionalities can limit or distort government expenditures and priorities. These unnecessary limitations continue to create barriers to health and development and are unfair and inequitable.
- NGOs will strengthen and support, not supplant, the role of government in making policy. NGOs will support efforts to involve indigenous civil society voices in the policy arena by encouraging their participation in developing policy and setting funding priorities.
- NGOs pledge to advocate for removal of political, ideological and financial barriers to the expansion and improvement of public health systems, including unnecessarily restrictive fiscal and monetary policies, and wage bill caps imposed by the international financial institutions.
- NGOs will work in solidarity with their Ministry of Health colleagues to oppose the detrimental policies of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other lenders whose loan conditions limit government expenditures on health or education.
- NGOs commit to designing their activities and programs so that they reinforce primary health care, foster equity and community involvement, and are generally replicable and financially sustainable over time.
- NGOs will also advocate with donors to support general health systems strengthening in the service of comprehensive national priorities.
- NGOs will follow national labor laws and pay all relevant taxes on their income and assets in the countries where they work, just as any business would.
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