PHA-Exchange> Latest on PHM from Bangalore and India

[Aviva]

Dear PHM friends,
>
> Greeting from Community Health Cell / Peoples Health Movement!
>
> Just a quick note to report on three important events and developments
>
> 1. On 15th July, we had the meeting of the National Working Group of
> Jana Swasthya Abhiyan (PHM - India) at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. It was
> well attended and participants included the national networks and the
> state representatives. We discussed and reported all the initiatives at
> international, national, state and local levels that had taken place
> since out last meeting in Chennai in December 2001 which Qasem had also
> attended.
>
> a) The group appreciated and endorsed the events and gains from PHM
> presence at WHA and the PHM Geneva event.
> b) A small group consisting of Ekbal, Mira, Amit, Mohan, Vandana was
> formed as a sort of International link group that would support CHC
> (Ravi Narayan / Thelma Narayan) in its effort to facilitate responses at
> the international level including linking national initiatives to
> international support initiatives and communications.
> c) If the CHC were to take up the PHM secretariat responsiblity at some
> later date, this group will be a sort of advisory/support group for that
> as well.
>
> However since this issue did not come up for discussion as yet, CHC has
> initiated an informal Peoples Health Watch unit in CHC (with Ravi and
> another team member giving full time with a set of volunteers) which
> will support communication publication, networking, advocacy initiatives
> at national and international level working closely with Dr. Qasem
> (international) and Balaji (national) secretariats. They will also
> specially support the websites at both levels. A more detailed note of
> the evolving work of this unit will be circulated soon to all concerned.
>
> d) Amit and Jaya will be the focal points for a major PHM oriented
> Health input in the Asian Social Forum being organised in Hyderabad from
> 2nd Jan 2003 as a runner up event to the World Social Forum in Porto
> Allegro, Brazil in February 2003. They will be supported by Sunder,
> Ravi, Abhay, Binayak, Mira and others.
>
> 2. Mike Rowson and I attended the World Civil Society Forum meeting in
> Geneva on behalf of the PHM. I attended the sessions on 16th and 17th
> and Mike attended the session on the 18th. The sessions on 16th included
> the session entitled 'Health and Development'. A question of Poverty at
> which I was a panelist and presented the concerns and framework from the
> South Asian Dialogue on Poverty and Health (which had 24 out of 48
> participants active in PHM in the following year). I also spoke on the
> Poverty and Health framework which is in the charter. The other
> panelists were Eugenio Villar who presented WHO perspectives and Louis
> Currat who presented perspectives from the Global Forum for Health
> Research. There was a lively discussion and many participants commented
> on the paradigm differences between the PHM activists who see poverty
> and Globalisation as the key issue and the mainstream policy makers and
> researchers who selectively focus on the diseases of poverty - malaria,
> TB and AIDS and miss the larger issue. There was need for a continuous
> dialogue to overcome this gap is thinking. The other  sessions organized
> by the working groups most of which I attended were:
>
> There were some very provocative and thoughtful presentations by Latin
> American nurses and traditional healers on the issue of access to the
> Health and they made a very forceful plea for the need for greater
> sensitivity and respect for local health traditions and cultural and
> policy space for the development of these systems and cultures of health
> including access to land and natural resources required for these health
> cultures to be regenerated and re-endorsed. There was a similar plea by
> African participants and I believe PHM must develop these themes with
> greater clarity. A detailed proceedings of the working group on health
> will be posted on the exchange as soon as it is received.
>
> 3. There has been a lot of interest on the idea of a series of meetings
> organized by PHM constituents in different regions of the world and at
> different levels next year, to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the
> Alma Ata Declaration. I think we should aim for at least 12 such
> meetings - one a month and somehow ensure that these are linked to each
> other as a sort of relay with at least one participant from a previous
> meeting attending the next one and presenting the key findings or
> conclusions of each meetings. So we will build further step by step.
> Since these will not all be PHM meetings as such but PHM sessions in
> different and ongoing meetings and conferences this should not be such a
> difficult proposition. Already 3 months have potentially designated
> meetings - the other nine months need to be filled in from the regions
> and countries. If there is a lot of enthusiasm there may be more than
> one meetings in a month.
>
> Janaury  2003 - Asian Social Forum, Hyderabad, India (2-7th)
> February 2003 - World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil
> May 2003        -  NGO Forum/PHM collaborative meetings in Geneva prior
> to WHA-)
>                             2003 (being planned).
>
> All of you may have other suggestions. Sometimes other organsiations and
> networks may have their annual meetings at which 25 years after Alma Ata
> can become a theme.
> Perhaps Qasem at the PHM Secretariat could send a draft letter and we can
see what is the
> response.
>
> Best Wishes
>
> Yours Sincerely
>
> Ravi Narayan
>
>
>