The health systems in countries throughout the developing world suffer from insufficient financial and human resources, limited institutional capacity and infrastructure, weak health information systems, lack of comprehensiveness, embedded inequity and discrimination in availability of services, absence of community participation, lack of transparency and accountability, and a need for management capacity building. WHO estimates that 4 million additional doctors, nurses, midwives, and support workers are needed globally to be able to provide 80% of essential care, and a continued source of the depletion of human resources in developing countries is the international recruitment of health professionals to the industrialized countries. 

Chiwo Connect seeks the development of health systems grounded in the human right to the highest attainable standard of health. To be consistent with the right to the highest attainable standard of health, health systems must be effective, integrated, and evidence based, embracing activities to promote health, prevent disease, and offer diagnosis and treatment; be based on principles of comprehensiveness, coordination, equity, quality, nondiscrimination, transparency, participation, and accountability to prevent corruption; and ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable members of society have effective access to the services and programs the health system offers.