Bangladesh Public Health Conference 2008
Dhaka, June 13-14, 2008

Conference Context

The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh ensures that “Health is the basic right of every citizen of the Republic”. Since independence, successive governments have been pursuing policies in health care system that theoretically ensures provision of basic services to the entire population, particularly to the under-served population focusing in rural areas. The successive health plans of the country emphasized Primary Health Care (PHC) as the key approach for improving health status of the people.

Since the much publicized World Development Report of 1993, Bangladesh has experienced a series of policy reforms, packaged in Health and Population Sector Programme (HPSP) and later labeled as Health, Nutrition and Population Sector programme (HNPSP).

In the elapsing decade Bangladesh experienced market oriented health sector reform through promotion of privatization of health service providers including, amongst others, public private partnership, increasing private financing via user fees. In addition, commercial interests are also promoted by opening up public services to foreign investors and markets. Such attempts seems to have made access to health system inequitable, provision of services in favour of well-off, who need them less, than the poor, who are unable to obtain them. In the absence of a comprehensive effort to ensure that health systems reach disadvantaged groups more effectively, such inequalities are likely to continue. Establishment of goals for improved health care coverage for the poor is needed and that can hardly be achieved arguably by the types of policies that have been pursued in a donor reigned health policy making system. It is now timely to understand the complexities, inquire the challenges and provide new comprehensive thinking for funding health care system that serves who needs it most.