PHA-Exchange> News from the Global Health Watch!! -- GHW Newsletter 4, September 2004

[Global Health Watch]

GLOBAL HEALTH WATCH
Mobilising Civil Society around an Alternative World Health Report

GHW Update 4 - September 2004
Welcome to our fourth edition!!!

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HOT TOPIC - WATCHING WHO

The Global Health Watch will not just examine global health policies - it
will also look at the performance of those institutions charged with
responsibility for health worldwide. The Watch has therefore commissioned
work on the World Health Organisation, looking at its core functions,
relationships with other organisations and management.

Strengthening the WHO's mandate

Prof. Ilona Kickbusch, formerly Director of Health Promotion at the WHO,
recently outlined a vision of a strengthened WHO. Amongst other
recommendations, she has called for an organisation that has:

· Constitutional capability to ensure agenda coherence in global health;
· Power to take countries to the international court for crimes against
humanity if they clearly refuse to take action based on the best public
health evidence and knowledge;

WHO's past record on regulation of drugs, tobacco and infant feeding
suggests it has an important role to play as the "health conscience" of the
world. But given the multiplicity of actors in today's global health arena
is it ever really likely to have the authority that Prof. Kickbusch hopes
for.

WHO has other roles to play in surveillance, technical assistance and
country co-operation. We want to hear your views on the usefulness of WHO,
and how it could be made more valuable at country and global levels. Please
write to ghw at medact.org.

The link to Prof. Kickbusch's full article is:
http://www.ilonakickbusch.com/public-health/publichealthinteh21st.pdf


NEWS FROM THE GHW - First two chapters' draftsare ready!!!

We are very excited to announce that the drafts for the chapters "Militarism
and conflict" by Vic Sidel (IPPNW) and "The right to food: Land, agriculture
and household food security" by Michael Chopra (Univ. Western Cape) have
been submitted and are now being revised. Here is a taste of some of the
contents:
· 90 percent of deaths during selected wars in the 1990s were among
civilians, primarily women and children. For example, in the civil war in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, it has been reliably estimated that there
have been approximately three million civilian deaths.
· Many people survive wars, only to be physically scarred for life. For
example, in Cambodia one in 236 people is an amputee as a result of a
landmine explosion.
· War and conflict destroy the infrastructure that supports social
well-being and health. For example, during Gulf War I and the 12  years of
economic sanctions that followed, an estimated 350,000 to 500,000 children
died, with most of these deaths related  to destruction of the
infrastructure of civilian society: health-care facilities,
electricity-generating plants, food-supply systems,  water-treatment and
sanitation facilities, and transportation and communication systems.
· The number of chronically hungry people has increased by over 18 million
since 1995- 1997. This means that about 18% of the world's population is
currently hungry
· The number of undernourished people has increased by 4.5 million per year
during the second half of the last decade.
· The growth in the number of people suffering from hunger, food insecurity
and undernutrition is occurring despite the fact that  food production has
doubled in the past 40 years, as has production per capita. Analysis
therefore requires an understanding   not just of who and how many are
suffering from hunger but also focuses on people's ability to access food,
rather than just food production or supply.


GET YOUR VOICE HEARD IN THE GHW!

We have received many enquiries from people and organisations eager to get
involved by submitting accounts of their local, national and regional
experiences. In order to make that possible we have put together a set of
guidelines, which are now available on the GHW Website www.ghwatch.org. See
bellow for examples of the issues we are looking for:
· Examples of policies/ actions to secure an equitable access to health
care.
· Examples of effective, efficient and inclusive public health care systems.
· Evidence showing the effects of commercialised health care on professional
ethics.
· Good and bad practices of donors on public health stewardship and on the
performance of health care systems.

Submit your case studies and get your voice in the GHW!

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