SESRIC Launches the OIC Health Report 2013

Jakarta: The OIC Health Report 2013, which has been prepared by SESRIC(Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries) was officially launched during the 4th Session of the Islamic Conference of Health Ministers (ICHM) which was convened in Jakarta, Indonesia, recently. The OIC Health Report 2013 provides a detailed analysis of the trends on major health indicators in the OIC Member Countries at the average OIC group level as well as at the individual country and OIC sub-regional levels. The report also highlights some health related issues in these countries such as health expenditures, the using of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in health sector, “e-Health” and the OIC cooperation efforts and initiatives in the domain of health. The report emphasizes the significant improvement in health care coverage across OIC countries. However, it also underscores that, despite the positive trend, OIC member countries are still lagging behind the world and developing countries averages. The report shows that the health care coverage situation remained significantly poor in member countries located in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa region mainly due to the lack of adequate and sustainable financial resources, poor health infrastructure, insufficient trained health workforce and slow progress on health reforms. The report emphasizes that the nature and magnitude of these key challenges facing the health sector in many OIC member countries require a greater commitment from the governments to put health sector higher on their national development agendas and build health infrastructure and train workforce to meet the current and future demands for the health services.