Health is an internationally accepted basic human right and is embodied in several international instruments. Children's right to health is provided for in these instruments and is given further attention in Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which requires countries to ensure that children enjoy "the highest attainable standard of health".

Yet, health is a complex notion, as is evident in the World Health Organisation definition of health as "the complete social, mental, physical and spiritual well-being of individuals and not merely the absence of disease". Despite its desirability, this broad definition poses a challenge when trying to define what country-specific obligations are in achieving health rights for children. Attaining good health requires a multi-dimensional, multi-sectoral approach and innovative collaborations at all levels of government and implementation. The health sector is thus only one, albeit a very important, component of contributing towards the health of children.

Many principles, goals and approaches have been developed to guide the health sector as it strives towards ensuring "health for all". The well-known and accepted Primary Health Care philosophy of Alma Ata 1978, based on the principles of justice and equity though health care, expresses the desirable attributes of a good health service. These include equity, accessibility, affordability and availability, and good quality of care. International forums have identified goals and programmes to guide countries on the delivery of child health services, the most recent being the Millennium Development Goals, which require countries to reduce childhood mortality and child malnutrition significantly.

In South Africa, a number of positive strides have been made in aligning ourselves with the requirements of the CRC and in making progress towards meeting international goals. The Constitution provides for "access to health care" for everyone and has a special provision for the "right to basic health care services" for children. Yet, the practical requirements of these provisions remain unspecified and require a clearer definition.

Why the need to define basic health care services for children? Firstly, it would enable children and their caregivers to know what services they are entitled to under the Constitution. Secondly, it would provide service providers, managers and policy-makers with clear goals to work towards. Thirdly, it would allow a more coherent development of laws, policies, programmes, services and budgets by aligning all of these to the defined requirements. For example, the current National Health Act makes little specific provision for children, and polices and programmes are not necessarily aligned to ensuring that the required basic health care services are in place. Lastly, it would enable us to monitor progress made towards the implementation of children's rights to health and health care through the development of appropriate indicators.

Yet, deriving at such a definition for basic health care services for children poses a huge challenge. It requires us to examine current priority health needs that reflect the common and baseline needs of all children. It requires re-examining policies, laws and programmes to see if they adequately cater for such needs, thereby developing an appropriate set of health care services for children within the current framework. The current primary health care package provides some, but not a comprehensive, outline of what children should be entitled to at all levels of care.

Project 28, a project of the Children's Institute, aims to define more clearly what the constitutional socio-economic rights for children mean – including their right to basic health care. The project will engage with many role players and jointly work towards a clearer definition of basic health care for children. A clearer understanding of our constitutional obligations hopefully will enable a more focused response at all levels, and result in improved basic health care services for children.