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Following a successful meeting in London on March 5, civil society representatives from across Africa and Asia gathered in Johannesburg on 13 and 14 May. The purpose of the meeting was broadly the same as the earlier session held in London in April: to allow individuals and groups with first-hand experience of the challenges around healthcare provision and funding to feed their views into the Taskforce’s deliberations.

Delegates turned their attention to a series of key issues, including ways to bridge gaps in existing resources, provide more of those resources, and link such measures to existing international and national health system frameworks.

They also had the chance to quiz members of the Taskforce secretariat in plenary sessions, which provoked valuable debate on issues such as stakeholder participation in potential solutions and the way in which the Taskforce operates, as well as airing challenges to be overcome in individual countries.

Mrs. Graca Machel, Taskforce member and President of the Foundation for Community Development in Mozambique, addressed delegates on both days of the meeting. In her opening remarks, Mrs. Machel seized on the ‘monumental’ nature of the challenge to meet the health-related MDGs by 2015. Existing crises in food and fuel had been compounded in 2008 by a financial crisis; left unaddressed, these combined crises will cause over 200,000 additional deaths. She called on delegates to consider, in their discussions, how solutions could be ‘country-owned’, but also internationally credible, with monitoring systems implemented which focus firmly on results.

A report of the meeting is on the website: www.internationalhealthpartnership.net/taskforce.html