Over the past 20 years, there have been major gains in life expectancy overall, but there are widening gaps in health status; some countries have witnessed reversals of earlier gains, because of such factors as infectious diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, inefficient health services, and deteriorating social and economic conditions. Prospects for achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals are quite favourable in the Bangladesh public health scenario.

The analysis in the WHO General Programme of Work reveals several areas of unrealized potential for improving health, particularly the health of the poor and ensuring better access to modern health care for poor households in rural areas.  The missing elements can be summarized as: gaps in social justice to ensure equity and health right, gaps in responsibility to improve health, gaps in implementation in terms of inadequate access to essential public health interventions and gaps in knowledge of ways to tackle some of the major health challenges. Future progress requires strong political will, integrated policies and broad participation.  

With this overview in mind, a six-year Medium-term Strategic Plan (MTSP) has been developed for adoption in WHO country offices worldwide, and MTSP will form the core of WHO’s result-based management framework within the overall context of the 11th General Programme of Work. The MTSP also takes into account the resolutions of global and regional governing bodies of WHO, as well as the needs of countries as reflected in Country Cooperation Strategies (the CCS). 

The MTSP provides the framework for the work of the entire Organization and is arranged in 13 Strategic Objectives (SOs), as compared to the 36 Areas of Work, used and followed up until 2006-2007. Each SO has well-defined targets and indicators for the work of the entire Organization, including both Member States and the Secretariat, to be achieved in the six-year period of the MTSP. Within each Strategic Objective are five to seven Organization-wide Expected Results (OWERs), each with its own six-year targets and indicators. The OWERs reflect the work to be achieved by the Secretariat at all levels. The MTSP also provides the framework for the budgets covering three biennia, starting with 2008-2009. It is expected that there will be only minor revisions in the OWERs during the course of these three biennia.

Reference Book (pdf 1MB)