TAKING stock of the challenges to health that will confront the world in the coming century and assessing their implications for future health systems is a daunting task. Yet this was the remit of the Seventh Consultative Committee on Organization of Health Systems Based on Primary Health Care. The Committee met in Geneva in February 1997, and, in view of the far-reaching implications of its findings for WHO’s future agenda, it was decided to issue a short Statement summarising its conclusions.

Copies of the Statement and the full report of the Seventh Consultative Committee on Organization of Health Systems based on Primary Health Care are available, free of charge, from: World Health Organization, Division of Analysis, Research and Assessment, Health Systems Development Programme, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland.