Developing sustainable international partnerships in child health and paediatric care

One of the UK government's policy initiatives when taking office in 1997 co ncerned international development. This highlighted an intention to expand partnerships between institutions in the UK and poorer countries; specifica lly "to work closely with other donors and development agencies to build pa rtnerships with developing countries".(1) The prime policy goal was to elim inate poverty and encourage economic growth that benefits the poor. Since c hildren are a group most vulnerable to poverty, a specific intention was to support international efforts to "enhance children's well-being including through the provision of effective and sustainable health services".(1) Thi s approach now features in documents from the UK's Department for Internati onal Development (DFID) with all four of its International Development Targ ets relating to child and maternal health (table 1).(2) UK institutions hav e already established linkages or partnerships centring on child health or paediatric care with counterparts in developing or resource poor countries. These involve National Health Service institutions, non-governmental organ isations (NGOs), and academic units; a selection is listed in table 2. In o rder to encourage the development of further partnerships, this article, fr om the RCP-CH's International Task Force on Children Affected by War and Ab solute Poverty, describes some linkages to show what is possible. The joint activities undertaken are many and various and include service work, resea rch, teaching, exchanges of staff, training, and support during and after h umanitarian emergencies relief. The scale and funding of the activities var y greatly but a consistent feature is that developed from initial contact b etween individuals. This distinguishes the UK relationships from those of s ome other industrialised countries where the relationships are stimulated a nd supported by bilateral strategic relationships. We describe three exampl es of a small service and teaching partnership (Ethiopia-Leicester), a larg er research and teaching enterprise (Malawi-Liverpool), and emergency and p ost-emergency support (Child Advocacy International with the International Health Exchange).