The Lancet: Alma Ata at 40 years: reflections from the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health
David A. Watkins, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington, and colleagues on the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health revisit the commission’s 2013 report, “Global health 2035: a world converging within a generation” (GH2035), which “concluded that a grand convergence in health — a reduction in infectious, child, and maternal mortality to rates seen in the best-performing middle-income countries — is technically and financially feasible for all but the poorest countries by 2035.” They write, “The 40th anniversary of the Alma Ata Declaration gave the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health an opportunity to assess progress towards grand convergence, and to reflect on the future of primary health care in the context of the modern universal health coverage movement. We also reflected on the future of official development assistance for health and its role in achieving grand convergence and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals” (10/20).