SDA-RF-AT-3.18.pdf

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SDA-RF-AT-3.18

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Appropriate Technology for Health

The health bill of the
industrialized
nations.
with less than 30 per
cent of the world's
population, is already
over 300 thousand million dollars
each year. All countries have a right
to expect at least the same level of
health, but many of them can hardly
shoulder such an immense financial
burden. Moreover, there is no direct
relationship between the amount of
money spent on conventional medi­
cal care and the overall health of the
people A totally new approach is
therefore needed
One of the most fundamental of
WHO's activities in partnership with
the developing countries is its pro­
gramme on primary health care and
rural development. Yet attempts to
bring health care and protection
against disease to the remoter and
least well served areas of the Third
World are constantly handicapped by
the absence of simplified, low-cost
materials, methods and techniques
designed for or adapted to local
conditions
In the past it was too easily as­
sumed that technology imported
from the industrialized countries
would automatically solve the deve­
loping nations' problems, including
those of health. This led to the
wholesale adoption of costly and
inappropriate methods and techni­

ques which benefit only a few dab­
pie and contribute little to the widely
dispersed communities of rural farm­
ing societies. Money that might have
been better spent has been squan­
dered on such efforts and, in the
process, the developing health ser­
vices have become unduly depen­
dent on the advanced industry of the
developed world. Indeed many in­
dustrialized countries are now begin­
ning to reassess the appropriateness
of their own technologies.
The right tools for the job
A resolution adopted by WHO's
Member States at the World Health
Assembly in May 1976 stressed that
primary health care and health tech­
nology must go hand in hand. As a
direct result, WHO has now em­
barked on a new programme entijjBd
"Appropriate
Technology
WJr
Health." Its objective is to help
national
governments solve
the
problems encountered in primary
health care programmes (particularly
those problems aggravated by the
lack of an appropriate technology).
at the same time both reducing the
current dependence on imported
technology and increasing the effec­
tiveness of national health services.
Why "appropriate" technology?
Because the kind of technology the
programme is searching for must be
right not only for the particular prob-

lem but also for each individual
country's situation It must be scien­
tifically sound and operationally ef­
fective — in some cases advanced
scientific skills will be necessary for
its initial development. But it must
also be acceptable both to the deci­
sion-makers and to the communities
it serves: it must be tailored to the
existing local financial, technical and
manpower resources, and it must
recognise local cultural constraints

The targets

Drawing on skills, knowledge and
creativity from many disciplines, the
programme will concentrate
on
health care problems which a sui­
table technology might help to solve
Sometimes an effective solution al­
ready exists, but is either little known
or unacceptable: or it has been
found, but needs to be improved
When there is no known solution, a
new technique has to be sought out
and tested
The search will focus both on
methods and materials — equip­
ment, tools, devices, chemicals.
drugs, biological substances — and
on how to use them to best effect.
But this is only part of the story The
technical difficulties confronting a
health project are often aggravated
by operational, financial or cultural
constraints. So the WHO programme
will also deal with ways of encou­
raging people to accept new tech­
nologies, training staff for their use
and maintenance, and the proper
production, distribution and applica­
tion of instruments and materials in
the countries where they are needed.
The simple medical kit provides all the
basic needs of this rural midwife.
(Photo WHO/P. Almasy)

The year 1
marked for plan
A major activity
ment of a plan
six years (1 978
propriate techn
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and other UN a<
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priate health res
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by Dr Katherine
the Intermediat
opment Group
working closely
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namely those \
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encies will be closeewly created appro>urces and technolod in the U.K. headed
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Once a list of priority needs has
been worked out, research and
development contracts will be nego­
tiated with appropriate technology
groups in various parts of the world.
The intention is to begin work as
soon as possible on' some of the
technological problems already iden­
tified and to start field trials in one or
two countries. In all these activities,
WHO is assuming a coordinating

Challenge for the future
A great deal is already happening
all over the world today in the field of
appropriate technology Those activ­
ities which are potentially of value to
the health sector need to be identi­
fied and coordinated. The success of
the new programme will depend on
the readiness of countries to commit
themselves to its aims and chal­
lenges Many still have to be con­
vinced that locally produced, lowcost, simple technologies are not
automatically second-rate. In fact to
develop appropriate technologies in
the developing world calls for much
more ingenuity than is generally
believed. Health professionals in all
countries must be prepared to modify
=sent conventional attitudes and
cept alternative ways as well as
some traditional practices of proven
value.
Because the new programme
reaches beyond the usual bound­
aries of the health sector, it has
been planned from the start as a
collaborative effort with all those
agencies, institutions and individuals
concerned in the development of
national resources.
It provides an unprecedented op­
portunity for the developed and
developing world to work in partner­
ship for the benefit of all.

«

Primitive — but it works. Weighing scales
like this, made from a stick, a little string,
some leaves and balls of clay, can help
mothers to ensure a "balanced" diet for
their families.

A two-man pedal-driven pump, con­
structed from locally available materials,
raises water from below the surface to
where it can be diverted into irrigation
channels.
(Photos WHO/UNICEF)

need your ideas
Essential to WHO’s new programme
"Appropriate Technology for Health” will be
a free flow of information and "feedback"
about innovations and traditional methods
that have already worked, about practical
experiences in all parts of the world, and
about potential needs that have to be met. Our
own sources may not be enough and we
welcome any information from our readers,
especially if it appears to have a direct appli­
cation to health problems.

We heed your help...
... to put these ideas into practice. In many
countries, official agencies, institutions and
individuals are already facing the problems
of developing locally applicable technologies,
and it will be WHO's task to help them in their
work. But we need to know much more about
people and institutions anywhere in the world
who have the interest and capacity to help in
this coordinated programme.

We need funds
Developing and applying simplified tech­
nology where it is urgently required will cost
money. Donations and gifts in kind can be put
to immediate use and may be sent to: Volun­
tary Fund for Health Promotion (Appropriate
Technology for Health), the World Health
Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland.

WORLD HEAL TH ORGAN/ZA TION
Appropriate Technology
for Health Programme
Avenue Appia
1211 Geneva 27
.^\A/IT7PDI AMn

The medicinal value of local herbs is
being scientifically evaluated in many
countries today.
(Photo WHO/Novosti)

A migraine sufferer having treatment by
acupuncture — a technology requiring
great skill but a minimum of materials.
(Photo WHO/lnterfoto)

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