Health in the Havana Agreements Part I

The Havana agreements, discussed and planned by the FARC guerrillas and the Colombian State, will be in the news during the next month. Understanding that the Plebiscite to approve them will take place next October 2, Sinergias Alianzas Estratégicas para la Salud y el Desarrollo Social will tell its readers some of the key points that have to do with public and community health, in order for them to make an informed decision.

Point 1: Comprehensive Rural Reform

According to the text of the General Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace, the Comprehensive Rural Reform lays the foundations for transforming the conditions of inequity that exist in the countryside in order to promote and generalize the welfare of the rural population and thus close the gap with the urban areas of the country. To this end, the first point of the agreement clarifies that the strategies will have a territorial, differential and gender focus.

Within this first point is 1.3 called “National Plans for Integral Rural Reform”, whose purpose is to overcome poverty in the Colombian rural sector by providing access and insurance for boys, girls, women and men to public services and goods.

To this end, a social development proposal was created that contemplates access to health, education and housing services as a way to eradicate poverty. With regard to health, it is proposed to offer services to communities without any type of exclusion based on age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

In this sense, the State must create a National Rural Health Plan, which will have as a pillar the strengthening of infrastructure and the improvement of the quality of care in the public network in rural areas. Some points of this Plan include:

• Conduct a comprehensive and participatory assessment to serve the greatest number of users in each region. The provision of equipment, including the adoption of new technologies to improve care (e.g. telemedicine), and the availability and permanence of qualified personnel are part of this priority.

• Incorporate the differential and gender approach: health requirements for women according to their life cycle will be taken into account, including sexual and reproductive health measures, psychosocial care and special measures for pregnant women and children, in prevention, promotion and health care.

• Create a special public health model for dispersed rural areas: with emphasis on prevention, in order to provide care in homes or workplaces.

• Create and implement a permanent monitoring and evaluation system: it will work to guarantee the quality and timeliness of care.

• It will seek to formalize the labor situation of peasants. Within this component is the social protection of peasant mothers, where the national government is committed to promoting protection schemes for the stages of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.

Although many of these points have already been contemplated in different laws (such as Law 160 of 1994 or Law 731 of 2002), it is important to highlight the incorporation of these principles and norms in the agreements.