Primary Health Care
25 Years of the Alma-Ata Declaration

The International Conference on Primary Health Care (PHC) in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, in 1978, brought together 134 countries and 67 international organizations. The conference defined and granted international recognition to the concept of Primary Health Care as a strategy to reach the goal of Health for All in 2000.

• A Renewed Commitment to Health for All in the 21st Century—Twenty-five years after the emergence of the slogan Health for All, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will carry out a series of activities in the coming months to renew the importance of primary health care, a tool essential to achieve equity in health. Read More.

Special Video Presentation

"Primary Health Care: Renewing Our Commitment" is a six-minute video produced by the Pan American Health Organization to remember Alma Ata and its lessons.
Click here to watch it

Questions and Answers

• What was the significance of the Alma-Ata conference? What is primary health care? How did Primary Health Care impact the health of the Americas? These and other questions are answered for you.
  Click here for questions and answers

Alma-Ata Revisited
from "Perspectives in Health" magazine

"Health for All by the Year 2000" was an ambitious and worthy goal. But even those who formulated it back in 1978 did not fully grasp its meaning. No wonder that 25 years later we have yet to realize all its dreams.
Click here to read the full article

"Health for All" Still Important Today

U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (left on the photo), who participated in the 1978 Alma Ata conference, believes the call for "Health for All" is as important today as ever. Read his thoughts on the 25th anniversary of Alma Ata.
Click here to read the full text

New Push Toward 'Health for All' in the Americas
from the "PAHO Today" newsletter

Health ministers from throughout the Americas called for a renewed commitment to the goal of "health for all" and endorsed primary health care as a strategy for reducing the region's persisting inequities in health.
Click here to read the full article

Interviews about Alma-Ata and Primary Health Care

• PAHO Director, Dr. Mirta Roses Periago
  High Bandwidth - 56k Version

• Primary Health Care in the Americas: Lessons Learned Over 25 Years and Future Challenges - Resolution adopted at PAHO's 44th Directing Council

The existing gross inequality in the health status of the people particularly between developed and developing countries as well as within countries is politically, socially and economically unacceptable and is, therefore, of common concern to all countries. Click here to read the Declaration

• Brochure
  (1.8MB PDF)
• Posters:
  English, Spanish, Portuguese, French
• Logos

Some photos from the Alma-Ata Conference

For more information related to this page, please contact the Office of Public Information, e-mail: publinfo@paho.org.