A/62/214 recommended by the WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. 4 Thus, calls for greater investment in health, in both developing and developed countries, are usually entirely legitimate. 17. However, even when more resources are made available, it is unlikely that they will support all health needs. In other words, tough priority choices will still have to be made, although prioritization becomes meaningless if the available resources do not reach a basic minimum threshold. Consequently, a call for increased health resources — and nothing more — rarely satisfies those who wish to see the right to health animate policymaking processes. 18. The modest purpose of the present section is to urge all relevant parties to pay more attention to the complex, sensitive issue of how to set health priorities in a manner that is consistent with human rights, including the right to the highest attainable standard of health. With a view to stimulating this discussion, the paragraphs below provide some brief, preliminary observations. 5 Preliminary observations 19. Prioritization demands close collaboration between human rights specialists and health specialists, including epidemiologists and health economists. 20. Human rights will sometimes signal a particular substantive health outcome from the process of prioritization, but more frequently they will suggest a series of procedural considerations (for example, participation, monitoring and accountability) that have to be taken into account when setting priorities. 21. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for a health authority to apply the right to health to the issue of prioritization if it were not also integrating human rights throughout its responsibilities. In short, a health authority cannot properly apply the right to health to the process of prioritization in isolation. 22. The right to health includes entitlements to medical care and to underlying determinants of health, such as adequate sanitation, water, nutrition and housing. Therefore, priority setting across a range of sectors, and not just the health sector, will have a profound bearing on the right to health. This underscores the crucial importance of intersectoral collaboration for the delivery of the right to the highest attainable standard of health. 23. The human rights approach does not make the unreasonable demand that all human rights must be realized overnight. In recognition of present realities, including resource constraints, it allows for the progressive realization of the right to health over a period of time. Prioritization must be conducted in this context of progressive realization. 24. Consequently, priority-setting must take place within the framework of a comprehensive national health strategy that spells out how the State expects to __________________ 4 5 6 See Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development (WHO, 2001). The information is based on papers prepared by Carla Clarke, Gunilla Backman, Rajat Khosla and Stephania Tripodi for an informal consultation organized by the International Federation of Health and Human Rights Organizations and the University of Essex in July 2005, as well as a draft chapter prepared by Judith Bueno de Mesquita later in the same year following additional consultations. Many thanks to all. 07-45379