Phuket declaration 2000 BACKGROUND The participants in the international “Towards Unity for Health” Conference in Phuket, Thailand, on this day of 13 August 1999 present this statement of Consensus to serve as a foundation for the development of partnerships to promote health for all people worldwide. This Consensus is grounded in the fundamental principles outlined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, resolution 1997/71 of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; the Declaration of Alma Ata; and the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy for Health for All, derived from resolution WHA30.43 (1977) of the World Health Assembly and the World Health Organization’s definition of health. In addition, the Consensus has imbedded within it the notions of health-related human rights found in the codes of professional ethics and conduct and patients’ rights promulgated by many professions in many nations. We agree that: • The health of individuals and families both reflects and influences the health of the communities and environments in which they live, work and play. • Each person has the right to healthy environments and equitable, effective, humane and ethical health services. • The good of individuals, communities and the environment must be respected and considered in all matters relating to health. • Policies and practices that affect health must be evidence-based, rational and sustainable and must aim at achieving both individual and societal good. • Effective partnerships between individuals and communities and all sec-tors - private, public, professional and voluntary - are essential to creating and sustaining effective health interventions and programmes. • Global society must ensure adequate resources for the health of all its members. • Responsibility and accountability for health, particularly that of the most vulnerable, are shared by all partners across all sectors. Recommendations for an action agenda This agenda is proposed to address the specific objectives of the project “Towards Unity for Health” (TUFH), which are to improve the relevance and performance of the health service delivery system to better meet people’s needs. The TUFH project aims to do this by facilitating coordination/integration of the wide spectrum of interventions geared towards individual health and community health at the level of a given population and by creating productive and sustainable partnership among key stakeholders working at that level, namely, policy-makers, health managers, the health professions, academic institutions and communities. The following agenda for action is proposed. Implementation of this agenda will depend on a fundamental reorientation of the education, training and continued development of the wide range of stakeholders in health. • Synthesise and promote the TUFH Consensus. • Identify the key determinants of partnerships that impinge on health. • Create mechanisms for developing the new skills needed for community alliances: cross-sectoral consensus-building, community engagement, leadership training, and management and resource development and deployment. • Develop shared knowledge and information systems for appraising partnerships and benchmarking the outcomes and impacts of TUFH projects. • Engage civil society, the public and private sectors and community leadership in the TUFH partnership movement and ensure substantive support for TUFH by these and all other stakeholders. • Ensure adequate resources to provide appropriate technical assistance, demonstration projects, research and evaluation of sustainable TUFH partnerships. • Develop, disseminate and implement a strategic plan to advance and expand a sustainable collaborating TUFH network. The World Health Organization, as the world’s key agency in international health, should take the lead in developing and promoting this Consensus. A resolution should be drafted for adoption by the World Health Assembly to give effect to the implementation of Towards Unity for Health.