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WHO Right to Health Advocacy project
The Right to Health Advocacy programme in the oPt works to strengthen monitoring of barriers to the right to health, including obstacles to health access and attacks on health care. The programme works with health partners to strengthen a human rights-based approach to health and engages in advocacy at local, national and international levels to promote improved respect, protection and fulfilment of the right to health.
The right to the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental human right encompassing all elements of life necessary to enjoy good health. It incorporates accessible, available, acceptable and high quality health services as well as meeting needs such as access to adequate food, clean water and housing that are considered underlying determinants of health.
Related links
Monthly oPt referral access reports
Right to Health photo book: Palestinian voices
WHO video-graphic: the journey of a referral patient from Gaza
WHO Health Emergency Programme
WHO supports the Ministry of Health, local and international partners in ensuring that all people in need across the occupied Palestinian territory have unimpeded access to quality, timely, life-saving health interventions that is people-centred and accountable to the affected population. WHO works closely with the Ministry of Health and Health Cluster partners to strengthen preparedness capacity of the Palestinian health system and its ability to respond to all hazards of public health significance, such as disease outbreaks, natural disasters, etc.
In 2018, the Gaza Strip witnessed a significant increase in Palestinian casualties in the context of the Great March of Return demonstrations. This has led to a wave of trauma casualties putting extra strain on an already overburdened health system. The increased numbers of injured and traumatized patients have exacerbated the chronic shortages of medical supplies, with Gaza’s Central Drug Store experiencing the most severe shortages in essential medicines since 2014. Due to the chronic electricity supply crisis, Gaza’s health facilities rely on donated fuel to run emergency generators during black-outs; otherwise, public hospitals would have to significantly reduce essential services and intensive care units, operating theatres and other critical units.
To respond to the mass influx of trauma patients in Gaza, WHO works with the Ministry of Health to enhance the trauma management system by upgrading key elements of the pathway. The Ministry of Health and the Palestine Red Crescent Society, with support from WHO, established 10 trauma stabilization points (TSPs) throughout critical zones in Gaza. TSPs helped to reduce the overload of hospitals substantially. Moving forward, WHO is now bridging the emergency response with health systems development through proactive trauma preparedness and strengthening of the whole trauma management system.
WHO and Health/Nutrition Cluster partners support the Ministry of Health to ensure the provision of lifesaving essential health care and preparedness, focused on mobilizing and prepositioning of essential medicines and supplies; provision of alternative energy sources, including solar electrification of the health sector in Gaza; and strengthening the trauma pathway – from injury to rehabilitation and recovery.
As the UN specialized agency for health, WHO co-leads the Health Cluster in the occupied Palestinian territory with the Ministry of Health. WHO works with the Ministry and health partners in identifying the health needs of affected populations and in coordinating the response of humanitarian health partners.
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Noncommunicable diseases
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death and a major economic and social burden. WHO provides technical and logistic support to the Ministry of Health in the West Bank and Gaza to implement the package of essential noncommunicable disease interventions in primary health care, known as the PEN approach.
WHO provides support to the Ministry in targeting preventive interventions and awareness campaigns for key risk factors for noncommunicable diseases: tobacco control, healthy diet, salt reduction, and physical exercise. For secondary prevention of NCDs, WHO and the Ministry of Health launched an early detection and screening programme in the West Bank. WHO supports the Ministry to build and expand the capacity of health professionals for behavioural change communication.
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