Alma Ata became known as an ideal declaration for primary healthcare. The means to developing this vision corresponds to the available funding as well as health economics in general. Critical issues include equitable allocation of health funding and developing a solid program of primary healthcare.

Analysis should be more dynamic and move away from a static 'public-private mix' framework to one informed by economic analysis of market structure, incentives, interactions and, importantly, sufficient evidence gathered from various countries' experience. Literature on how the private and the public sectors in health services mutually influence each other through market dynamics and forces over time is still very much limited. How can a variety of sources be best used and matched to achieve the desired Geneva Health Forum 2008 goal of "global access to health"?

European health care systems have proved to be effective and have established standards that have successfully aided the development of health in european countries. This session highlighted the role of the European Union in the improvement of global health and the structural changes that should be made within European health systems in order to promote health and increase the effectiveness of aid around the world.

This session on Innovative Health Care Financing reviewed three approaches being tested in a variety of countries. The first, budget support, was found to be severely hampered by the practice of saving foreign assistance instead of spending it, due to 'fiscal space' restrictions. The second, Community Health Insurance (CHI), is based on prepayment and risk sharing. The third, the Sector Wide Approach (SWAp), suffers from a lack of harmonisation in reporting systems, resulting in unnecessary additional administration in the ministries of health.

The session stressed that "the government is no longer the sole guidance of the public good or interest", but market forces alone cannot be the solution. Effective collaborations need partners with shared goals and values, and successful alliances have to be based on trust and a "human chemistry" in relationships. The session concluded that "public-private partnership should not be 'in addition', but should be considered as mainstream".

What affects medicine pricing? Which policies and programmes could lower prices and improve access to essential medicines? How do we measure the impact of these interventions? These crucial questions were addressed by a panel of experts, on the basis of the most recent - and often surprising - evidence. And sometimes evidence can trigger changes.

On behalf of the Geneva University Hospitals, the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva, and the Forum Organizing Committee, we are delighted to welcome you to the Geneva Forum: Towards Global Access to Health. This second edition of the Geneva Health Forum comes as the result of the success of the first Forum, which took place end of August 2006.