Basic social services

Basic social services such as primary health care, food, safe water and basic education can make a sustainable improvement to the living conditions of poor people. They are important elements of any poverty reduction strategy.

Health

MDG 4 (Reduce child mortality), MDG 5 (Improve maternal health) and MDG 6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases) focus on primary health care. Germany supports measures which contribute to the achievemet of these goals at various levels.

Germany is involved in implementing broad-based health campaigns through its contribution to multilateral organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Examples of these are measles and polio vaccination programmes and programmes to treat diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory diseases. Germany supports the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) by providing funding for sex education and health education for adolescents. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) also receives financial assistance from Germany.

Further areas of action are basic and further training of health-care professionals and quality assurance in health services. Germany also supports its partner countries in reforming their health policy, for example, through sustainable financing for and development of health insurance systems.

To ensure that the poor have access to essential drugs, Germany successfully supported a new regulation being included in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) intellectual property agreement (TRIPS). Under previously applicable WTO regulations, a compulsory licence for patented medicines could only be granted for productions that supply the domestic market, but not for export. As a result, developing countries with no pharmaceutical industry were unable to import desperately needed drugs. In late August 2003 the General Council of the WTO agreed that poor countries could, when required, import drugs produced under a compulsory licence.

Basic education

Germany is committed to work in the education sector to improve poor people's opportunities for social participation and self-determination. Along with improving vocational training opportunities, Germany supports the implementation of MDG 2 (Achieve universal primary education for all). Germany is actively involved in the World Bank's Fast Track Initiative to promote basic education for all. By 2007 Germany's dedicated funding for basic education is to be increased to 120 million euros a year.

Access to water

Germany is one of the world's most important donors in the water sector. Germany supports the development of public water-sector institutions and the expansion of water supply and sanitation systems. It thus contributes to achieve MDG 7 (Ensure environmental sustainability). One sub-goal is to halve the number of people who have no access to clean drinking water by 2015.