PHA-Exchange> INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR EQUITY IN HEALTH CONFERENCE, TORONTO JUNE 2002

[Aviva]

From: "Firoze Manji" <firoze at fahamu.org>
 "Equinet News" <EQUINET-Newsletter at equinetafrica.org>


> INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR EQUITY IN HEALTH CONFERENCE, TORONTO JUNE 2002
> EQUINET SECRETARIAT BRIEFING
> JULY 2002
> R Loewenson, T Maistry  TARSC, Zimbabwe
>
> EQUINET recently participated and held a workshop in the second conference
> of the International Society for Equity in Health, Toronto Canada in June
2002.. >

Health and Development commitments and the New Plan for African
> Development (NEPAD) was presented by Ronald Labonte and David Sanders of
the
> University of the Western Cape.  The presentation outlined the G8
> commitments, the potential of NEPAD to address specific health inequities,
> and the investment issues that would need to be addressed to deal with
such
> inequities. The authors noted that "Without challenging the causes of
> poverty and inequity and without addressing the functioning of health
> systems, NEPAD's health project is unlikely to achieve its goals." They
> called for more investment in health and health related sectors for
> infrastructure and recurrent expenditure to enable retention strategies,
> training, support and supervision of personel. It was noted that each year
> Africa subsidises $500 m of training for health personnel for rich
countries
> in response to the climate in free trade of health professionals.
>
> Lucy Gilson, CHP outlined the problems of equity in health in terms of
> rich - poor health inequalities.
>
> Di McIntyre, Health Economics Unit, University of Cape Town  noted that
> intra-country geographic analyses have shown promise in exploring health
> system equity issues. Small area analyses of the distribution of
> deprivation, ill-health and health services draws  attention to areas with
> high levels of deprivation, poor health status and limited public sector
> health care provision in order that these areas can receive greater
priority
> in resource allocation decisions.
>
> I Rusike Community Working Group on Health and  Rene Loewenson  argued
that reversing inequities depends in the
> main on social and political factors. This goes beyond the fact that
social networking is important for service outreach and health seeking
behaviour,
> and that social exclusion as a dimension of deprivation or poverty affects
> health outcomes.  Unless the people affected by ill health have greater
> control over the resources needed for health care or to be healthy, then
> equity goals will remain a dream.

> Firoze Manji, Fahamu (UK)  raised the question: Is equity in health about
> making poverty palatable for the poor? Or should it be about contributing
to
> the struggle for social emancipation? He presented evidence from Nairobi
on
> health struggles of poor people centering around basic rights. He observed
> that we tend as health workers, to look at health outcomes and treat the
> symptoms.  But the problem caused by illnesses is in the social, economic
> and political domains, it only manifests in the health domain.  Equity in
> health is inevitably a political struggle and its starting point should be
> the defence of social, economic, political and civil rights.
>
> Prof Godfrey Swai, Tanzania, was not able to participate but his paper
> reviewing equity issues in the Global Health Fund noted that HIV/AIDS,
> Tuberculosis and Malaria are diseases of poverty or deprivation. Effective
> rolling back of the three diseases must equally roll back poverty. Equity
in
> health and poverty reduction are intimately linked issues that the
> international community cannot dismiss and are a challenge for
effectiveness
> of the Global Health Fund.

> In discussion, debt servicing was regarded as a key problem as it
> exacerbated the impact of unfair competition and trade rules that had
> negatively affected economies in southern Africa. The mismatch between
will
> and resources was constantly raised.
>

> The full report of the EQUINET ISEqH workshop is available in hardcopy
from
> the EQUINET secretariat at TARSC,
> rloewenson at healthnet.zw or as a downloadable pdf file from our website at
> www.equinetafrica.org  . If you have input or comments on this issue
please  email these to the secretariat to rloewenson at healthnet.zw.