Health sector reform and reproductive health in Latin America and the Caribbean: strengthening the links

Many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) are currently refor ming their national health sectors and also implementing a comprehensive ap proach to reproductive health care. Three regional workshops to explore how health sector reform could improve reproductive health services have revea led the inherently complex, competing, and political nature of health secto r reform and reproductive health. The objectives of reproductive health car e can run parallel to those of health sector reform in that both are concer ned with promoting equitable access to high quality care by means of integr ated approaches to primary health care, and by the involvement of the publi c in setting health sector priorities. However, there is a serious risk tha t health reforms will be driven mainly by financial and/or political consid erations and not by the need to improve the quality of health services as a basic human right. With only limited changes to the health systems in many Latin American and Caribbean countries and a handful of examples of positi ve progress resulting from reforms, the gap between rhetoric and practice r emains wide.