Over recent years, there has been much successful collaboration between WHO and WONCA. Initiatives about making medical education more appropriate to community needs (The Ontario conference) and increasing collaboration between general practice and public health (Towards Unity for Health) have focussed these bodies on cooperative partnerships.
The WONCA Working Party on Rural Practice has been very active over the same time in elucidating the needs of the rural people.
At Traralgon, before this Melbourne conference, a WHO-WONCA Co-sponsored Consultation will bring together these two initiatives to help achieve "Health for All Rural People".
By bringing together a wide range of people with interest in rural health, considering successful examples of collaboration and jointly considering options for future implementation, WHO and WONCA will develop a blue print for rural health.
The major outcomes of the Conference will be an Action Plan on Rural Health which integrates the individual and population health approaches towards improving the health and wellbeing of people in rural and remote areas around the world, and a series of proposals on rural health development around the world.
This paper will present those outcomes.