PHA-Exchange> In preparation of PHA II - part 1

[Claudio]

Dear friends,



In preparation of the People's Health Assembly II in Cuenca, Ecuador, July, 2005, in the coming days, I will post a series of eight very short pieces that will make all of us think about the type of issues we should not miss reviewing in preparing the assembly and during the assembly itself. The pieces are all taken from an article Dr Ravi Narayan and I are publishing shortly as a chapter of a book on perspectives on global development. 

Do keep these pieces and refer to them often as we get closer to the assembly. 

Comtributions of every one of you on these issues will be welcome in pha-exchange for all of us to share and to enrich the preparatory process.

Claudio



The People's Health Movement: 

A People's Campaign for HEALTH FOR ALL - NOW!

 

ABSTRACT

 

The People's Health Assembly later renamed the People's Health Movement has been a worldwide civil society effort to counter the ill-effects of Globalization on Health and Health Care. The Assembly, through an interactive dialogue came up with the People's Charter for Health as a tool for advocacy and a call for more needed radical action. Consisting of a wide range of action initiatives, the People's Charter --now translated into over forty languages-- is helping to promote a host of activities: a movement that promotes geographical circles of health professionals and activists, organizing street level rallies, policy debates and dialogue, public education, advocacy with WHO and other international health players, and health campaigns --all focused on the Health for All - Now goal.



Background

                                                                                                           
In 1978, in Alma - Ata, the universal slogan Health for All by the year 2000 was coined. At the same time, the famous Alma Ata Declaration was overwhelmingly approved, putting people and communities at the center of health planning and health care strategies, as well as emphasizing the role of community participation, appropriate technology and inter-sectoral coordination.  The Declaration was endorsed by most of the governments of the world and symbolized a significant paradigm shift in the global understanding of Health and Health Care. (WHO - UNICEF, 1978).

 

Twenty five years later, 

-after much policy rhetoric, 

-some concerted but mostly ad-hoc action, 

-quite a bit of misplaced euphoria, 

-distortions brought about by the growing role of the market economy as it has affected health care, and 

-a fair dose of governmental and international health agencies' amnesia, 

this Declaration remains unfulfilled and mostly forgotten, as the world comes to terms with the new economic forces of globalization, liberalization and privatization which have made 'Health for All' a receding dream.

 

The People's Health Assembly in Savar, Bangladesh, in December 2000, and the People's Health Movement that evolved from it are both a civil society effort to counter this global laissez faire and to challenge health policy makers around the world with a Peoples Health Campaign for Health for All-Now!
 (to be cotinued)
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