PHA-Exchange> What you need to know about the ongoing restructuring of PHM

[Claudio]

PHM is undergoing its most important restructuring (since its birth six years ago) to make it more democratic and representative. The note below is a must reading for all our members. Any feedback should be posted directly by you in 

pha-exchange at lists.kabissa.org 

Please give quality time and your undivided attention to this letter.

Claudio

 

 

20th April, 2006

Greetings from the PHM Secretariat in Transition!

During the last week, we have looked at the PHM organizational structure, its funding and financial management, at our regional mobilization efforts and at our regional and country circles, as well as the communication challenges PHM faces. We also looked at all the minutes of meetings held since Cuenca, including one in Frankfurt and one in Cairo. The draft minutes of the Cairo meeting are complete and will be posted in pha-exch shortly after the approval of the new Global Secretariat Committee to be, from now-on, located in the Middle East. This report will include a summary of the key agreements reached during the meeting.

During our discussions, we have looked at all the on-going dynamics of the PHM transition. We want to make the following recommendations about the next steps (for final consideration by the transition team): 

  1.. The transition process, so far, has included the following:
    1.. The PHM steering group meeting in Cuenca (23rd July, 2005) - Minutes are available.
    2.. Three assignments that were then made. 1) Dr Fran Baum to review the offers received for hosting the Global Secretariat and to facilitate the process of a final selection; 2) Dr Prem John to review PHM's communications strategy and to explore options for shifting the website to a new management  and new editor; and 3) Dr David Legge supported by three other members to review all organizational/ structural changes suggested by the Steering Group members and to produce the framework of a new governance structure which will be more responsive to the needs of the decentralized growth of the Movement by boosting functional and geographical circles and mobilization efforts overall.
    3.. By the end of September, 2005, the website was transferred from the Bangalore Secretariat-based group to Intal, at  PHM Belgium, with Wim Deceukelaire as the new web-master; all PHM-related country and issue websites and many other volunteers who have worked on the website were invited to support the new web-master and the  communications circle. The re-designed website has been launched and you should visit it periodically at www.phmovement.org  
    4.. Since the Central and South American region withdrew their offer to host the Global Secretariat, the process to relocate the Secretariat took a little longer time to settle on an alternative. The Middle Eastern region which had also offered to host the secretariat during the Cuenca meeting, was ten asked to come up with a new proposal. 
    5.. To continue leadership during the gap period, a Transitional Team was announced in October 2005 consisting of 6 members who would follow up on organizational matters and initiatives and would maintain the momentum of the Movement while the new structures were being set up. The Transition Team, chaired by Dr Prem John, included in addition, Dr Fran Baum (coordinator of the Secretariat shift and commissioner of WHO's Commission on the Social Determinant of Health), Dr David Sanders (coordinator of the Global Health Watch-2), Andy Rutherford (PHM funding, in London), Dr David Legge (coordinator of the International People's Health University) and Dr Ravi Narayan (as the out-going coordinator in support of the transition, of funding and of capacity building). 
    6.. Prem John and Ravi Narayan continued to be the hub of the Secretariat in Transition and supported dialogue and initiatives evolving the new governing structure.
    7.. At the initiative of Medico-International in Germany, the newly formed Transition Team met in Frankfurt on 7-8 February 2006. The meeting participants included: Prem John, Fran Baum, David Sanders, David Legge, Andy Rutherford and six others who were invited as special invitees, including: Maria Hanlin-Zuniga and Claudio Schuftan (who were there attending the IPHU review), Dr Hani Serag representing the Middle East as a potential host of the Global Secretariat, Dr Alexis Benos as the new European Regional Coordinator and two representative from medico International as the meeting hosts. 
    8.. The group reviewed a number of relevant documents including minutes, reports and e-mail discussions generated over the last six months plus a comprehensive report from the outgoing Secretariat.
    9.. The report of the Frankfurt meeting entitled "In the sprit of Allegremia - Report of the PHM Transition Advisory Group, February 2006" is now available for wider endorsement, especially its recommendations for a modified governing structure which includes a "People's Health Assembly" as a mandate-renewing representative group to meet every five years, a "Steering Council", a small "Coordinating Commission" (the CoCo) and the "Global Secretariat" supported by a small number of functional coordinators (responsible for the website, the GHW, liaison with WHO, the organization of PHA3, of fund raising and of the IPHU).
    10.. The mandate of the Interim Coordinating Commission will be to manage the transition (preferably within six months, but certainly no longer than one year), to serve as an executive board to the Steering Council, to manage the public representation of PHM globally (together with the Global Coordinator), to manage regional liaison and capacity building, to manage, endorse and monitor thematic circles (issues, campaigns, and projects), and to manage functional coordination of the Movement. We envisage the Interim Co Co to be involved in allocating further responsibilities for the transition and the development process; also for fund raising activities and for the development of the regional and new national circles, as well as membership issues.  We suggest the following as members of the Interim Co Co: Fran Baum and Prem John (both with special responsibility for the transition, the Global Coordinator in Cairo, David Sanders (representing Africa, PHA3 and the GHW), Arturo Quizhpe &/or Margarita Posadas (Latinamerica), and Nadia van der Linde (Europe), Ravi (as retiring Global Coordinator, 
    with particular responsibility for regional  capacity building), 
    functional coordinators like Andy Rutherford (finances) and David Legge (IPHU) would also be expected to attend.  David Legge agreed to work with the new Secretariat to create an intranet site to archive and access key documents. His document organisation played a valuable role in supporting the efficient running of the Frankfurt  meeting.
    Chair:  We expect that the Chair of the CoCo will be identified by the Steering Committee. In the first instance we recommend that Fran & Prem serve as co-chairs of the Interim Co Co. The Global Coordinator (Hani Serag) or Secretariat representatives will not serve as chair of the CoCo.
    11.. The Frankfurt dialogue participants finally endorsed the offer of the Middle East Region to host the Global Secretariat and  members of hat meeting were requested to attend a MENA planning meeting in Cairo on 25-27 February 2006.
    12.. The Cairo meeting was attended by representatives from PMRS (Palestine), ARC (Lebanon) and AHED (Egypt) who came to discuss the collective hosting of the Secretariat. At the Cairo meeting, also attended by Prem and Alexis, the following five agreements were reached concerning the Global Secretariat in the region:
                                                              i.      At the invitation of MENA region, represented by AHED (Association for Health and Environmental Development, Egypt), PMRS (Palestinian and Medical Relief Society, Palestine) and ARC (Arab Resource Collective, Lebanon), the Global Secretariat will move to MENA and will be hosted by AHED in Cairo. 

                                                            ii.      The above three organizations will be jointly responsible for the Global Secretariat.

                                                          iii.      The three organizations mentioned above will be known as the Global Secretariat Support Committee and will second AHED to host and coordinate the Global Secretariat and to represent the Committee at the Coordinating Committee CoCo).

                                                          iv.      AHED seconded Hani Serag to be PHM's Global Secretariat Coordinator.

                                                            v.      Internal decision-making will be by the Committee of three who will work out the modalities among themselves.

    13.. Hani, as the incoming Coordinator designate, visited the Bangalore Secretariat from March 31st to April 7th to orient himself about the challenges of the new responsibilities. He also visited Chennai, and Dhaka for the HAIAP anniversary meeting. 
  1.. We suggest the next steps to be:
    1.. The finalized Cairo report will be sent to the Transition Team with the summary of final agreements earliest.
    2.. The four documents including the Cuenca minutes, the comprehensive report from the outgoing Secretariat, the Frankfurt report and the Cairo report will be circulated to the current PHM Steering Group and the Support Group as soon as possible to widen the dialogue and seek endorsements. Summaries should be circulated and full documents could be on the PHM website for easy access.
    3.. An announcement will be made of the Cairo decisions including the hosting of the Global Secretariat and the new Coordinator in AHED. 
    4.. Accordingly, the period April - June 2006 will be a Transition Phase during which the Transition Team with Prem as Chair will continue to coordinate processes and events in close collaboration with the new Secretariat/Coordinator in a period of overlap.
    5.. Corresponding new announcements will also be made on pha-exchange.
    6.. The upcoming World Health Assembly (May 2006) should be used as a strategic opportunity to organize an extended transition meeting including representatives from the new host region, and some of the suggested CoCo members proposed in the Frankfurt report. The PHM WHO-Advocacy Circle conveners (Ravi, Zafrullah Choudhuri and David Mc Coy who will replace Ravi as convener at this WHA) are exploring various options in close coordination with the PHM contacts in Geneva for this meeting. Apart from the regular advocacy initiative at the WHA around WHA topics, papers and sessions, the Extended Transition Team will have the challenge of producing further guidelines for all aspects of the new structures and strategies. A meeting has already been held in Geneva with all PHM friends, members and contacts and they are exploring all the support options. Care should be taken not to expand the PHM delegation to the WHA to a very large number preventing serious Transition Team discussions.
    7.. IBFAN's 25th Anniversary will be organized this year at WHA and beyond. PHM has been invited to support in solidarity. For further details contact Lida Lhotska (lida.lhotska at gifa.org.vcf). The NGO Forum for Health session durign the WHA will focus on health human resources issues and PHM has been invited to participate. WHO has also invited the PHM to participate in providing a short critique of the World Health Report 2006 that focused on the health and human resources theme. David McCoy has started this process. We are also exploring the possibility of launching the GHW1 Report in Geneva during and around the WHA.
    8.. A suitable opportunity, preferably in Cairo, is being explored when this transition process can be completed and the new Steering Council and CoCo are formally established. This could be around the AHED's general meeting (dates not yet finalized) or around the Forum 10 of the Global Forum for Health Research (29th October - 2nd November). It may also be possible to link both these events to create a larger opportunity (larger number of participants).
  2.. While the transition process proceeds as above, some PHM ongoing initiatives will continue to be supported in the next few months concurrently:
    1.. Prem and Hani  used the opportunity of the HAIAP anniversary meeting in Savar, Bangladesh to meet and discuss with participants  from PHM Asia country coordinators. 
    2.. PHM News-briefs 16 and 17 will be finalized shortly and published for distribution at the WHA.
    3.. PHM Europe is organizing some events and sessions during the European Social Forum the 1st week of May in Greece. Till now, at least some of PHM people from the Middle East have confirmed their participation. To learn more about it, please go to www.healthp.org/documents, select "Health Policy - PHM - REDS" and open the Athens ESF health program.
    4.. Ravi and David McCoy are exploring the possibility of an informal PHM dialogue in London on 14th June during Ravi's visit to attend meetings of the BMJ editorial board and a LSHTM seminar.
    5.. PHM participation in various events is being explored and prepared for. This includes:
                                                              i.      The National Health Assembly in Peru - July 2006.

                                                            ii.      The World Public Health Conference in Rio, Brazil in August 2006.

                                                          iii.      The Geneva Forum towards Global Access to Health on 30th August - 1st September - organized by the Geneva University Hospital and the University of Geneva.

                                                           iv.      The Australian Conference in September 2006 (Fran for details).

                                                             v.      The Canadian Conference on International Health of the Canadian Society for International Health: "Who cares? The human dimension of global health" - October 15-18, 2006 - Ottawa, Canada (consult http://www.csih.org/csihindex2.html).

    6.. The PHM involvement in the civil society process within the framework of WHO's Commission on SDH in different regions will continue. PHM's participation in the Commission's Knowledge Hubs is also active. Thelma Narayan (India) has been nominated for the "Measurement" knowledge network on evidence for policy change, Alaa Shukrallah (Egypt) was nominated for the knowledge network on "Early Childhood Development" and Hani Serag (Egypt) for the one on "Urban Settings". Earlier already, David Sanders (South Africa) and Claudio Schuftan (Vietnam) became members of the network on "Globalization". The next Civil Society Facilitators meeting will be taken place most probably during the first week of May 2005 (in Geneva or in Cairo).
    7.. PHM is negotiating with SIDA (Sweden) for an interim grant to cover the remaining PHA-2/PHM debts and also to raise funds for the transition period.
    8.. The MENA-based new Secretariat Committee is preparing a project proposal to support the next phase of the PHM Secretariat's work. 
    9.. The GHW 2 Secretariat has been established in South Africa, David Sanders and Bridget Lloyd have circulated a structure of the GHW2 plus a plan of action for discussion and comments. (bridgetl at mweb.co.za)
    10.. The forum 10 of the Gobal Forum for Health Research will be held in Cairo from 29th October to 2nd November 2006. David Sanders has submitted an abstract on behalf of PHM to describe a capacity building process to produce a cadre of researchers who understand the complex methodological requirements of conducting evaluative research on complex comprehensive primary health care. Ravi as a newly elected GFHR foundation council member is also exploring how PHM resource persons and PHM concerns can be included in the forum's program.
    11.. Claudio, Abhay Shukla, Laura Turiano and Saskia Bakker are quite advanced in finalizing PHM's Global Right to Health Care Campaign. The proposal has been accepted after several drafts were circulated for discussion. An instrument for the assessment of the right to health at national level is being finalized and fund-raising is well under way. The campaign aims at doing these assessments in some 40 countries over the coming year. 
    12.. A review of the IPHU took place in Frankfurt on 9th February 2006 and a report on this and plans for future courses will be circulated shortly. Opportunities of linking IPHU courses with already planned events are being explored. (d.legge at latrobe.edu.au) 
    13.. A contribution of a chapter on PHM in the upcoming Encyclopedia of Health by Elsevier has been finalized. 
 

We welcome members' feedback through pha-exchange. 

 

Ravi, Prem and Hani

Bangalore

 


 
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