Good health is essential to human welfare and to sustained economic and social development. WHO's Member States have set themselves the target of developing their health financing systems to ensure that all people can use health services, while being protected against financial hardship associated with paying for them.

The global report Hidden cities: unmasking and overcoming health inequities in urban settings is one important component of the overall WHO and UN-HABITAT strategy to strengthen the response of the local, national and global health communities to reduce health inequities in an increasingly urbanized world.

The World Health Statistics series is WHO

WHO has introduced Water Safety Plan (WSP) in the 3rd Edition of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality to provide a systematic approach for improving and maintaining drinking water safety.

Drinking-water quality is an issue of concern for human health in developing and developed countries world-wide. The risks arise from infectious agents, toxic chemicals and radiological hazards. Experience highlights the value of preventive management approaches spanning from water resource to consumer.

This fourth edition of the WHO Guidelines for surveillance of drug resistance in tuberculosis presents up-to-date guidance on the design and implementation of setting-specific surveys and surveillance systems to measure the burden and trends of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

Working in partnership to prevent and control the four noncommunicable diseases — cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases and the four shared risk factors - tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diets and the harmful use of alcohol.

World Health Statistics 2008 presents the most recent available health statistics for WHO's 193 Member States. This fourth edition includes 10 highlights of health statistics as well as data on an expanded set of over 70 key health indicators. The indicators were selected on the basis of their relevance to global health monitoring and c onsiderations of data availability, accuracy and comparability among Member States.

The objective of this report is to monitor global progress in the health sector as it scales up HIV prevention, treatment and care interventions towards universal access . The current report is the second in a series of annual progress reports developed by the WHO, the joint UNAIDS and the UNICEF in partnership with other international monitoring and reporting mechanisms to monitor the response of the health sector to HIV. This report includes a focus on women and children.