Abstract
International governments, universities, and health and social care organisations celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Alma-Ata Declaration in October 2018. Alma-Ata1 was a landmark global commitment to primary health care (PHC), which conceptualised health, not only as provision of biomedical care, but also emphasised the importance of social and economic factors. This anniversary has been marked with the publication of the Astana Declaration in Kazakhstan 25–26 October 2018,2 which will contribute to events next year supporting ‘universal health coverage’ (UHC) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).