PHM-Exch> PHM press statement (WHA 2009, May 18): “Declare Global economic downturn a health emergency!”

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: <unnikru at yahoo.com>
and: secretariat at phmovement.org,


    <http://www.phmovement.org/cms/>
For immediate circulation:
*Press Release: Geneva , 18 May, 2009 *

*“Declare Global economic downturn a health emergency!”*

* *

*“Economic Recession is a threat to the world’s health”*

* *

The People’s Health Movement urges the World Health Organization and member
governments to *“declare the economic recession currently gripping the globe
as a health emergency”. *

Health activists gathered here in Geneva for the World Health Assembly
(18-22 May) are expected to lobby the UN health body and governments to
declare global downturn a health emergency.

People’s Health Movement (PHM) is a global coalition of grass root health
workers, health professionals, human rights, peace and social activists.

*“Recession is hitting the poor people hard and their health and
survival”*said a PHM spokesperson.

*“While it is too early to make a rigorous assessment, recession’s potential
impact on health is much greater than that of ‘Swine flu’, through impacts
on poverty and social spending”.*

*“The current paradigm of ‘development’ has aggravated poverty and
ill-health for the poor, especially in the global south”,* said Prof. David
Sanders, a public health expert from South Africa . *“The current financial
crisis will worsen this”*, he said.

*“Donors need to place health needs of poor people at the centre of their
response strategies” *said Dr. Zafrullah Chowdhury from Bangladesh . Dr.
Chowdhury, a leading advocate for affordable health care for poor people
from Bangladesh , urged donors to do a ’reality check’ and shred what he
alleged was their ‘imperial attitude’.

PHM warns that the financial crisis is likely to result in greater
dependence of southern countries on donor assistance.

Previous precedents indicate that the effects of the global crisis will be
quickly felt by the poor, across the globe. Focussing on a few priority
diseases will further amplify the health challenges for the poor people.

*Consider the facts:*

   - 50 million workers may lose jobs if the economic crisis worsens, warns
   the International Labour Organization.
   - The UN and all its agencies and funds spend about $20 billion each year
   or about $3 for each person in the world. In contrast, Global military
   expenditure in 2007 was US $ 1339 billion or about US $202 for each person
   in the world.
   - Over 1 billion people across the globe go hungry every day. One in five
   people in developing countries is chronically undernourished



   - Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes - one
   child every five seconds.



   - The crisis undermines human rights. UN Human Rights Council expressed
   “grave concern” that the crises threatens to undermine the achievement of
   the internationally agreed development goals including the Millennium
   Development Goals.

*“The loss of livelihoods, impending cutbacks in welfare spending and
intensified food crisis for the world’s poor is going to result in a
significant increase in avoidable deaths around the world”* said Dr. Amit
Sengupta, a leading health analyst from India . In India , 80 percent of
expenditure on healthcare is through out-of-pocket payments.

Loss of jobs or income could leave a vast majority of these unable to pay
for their treatment.

*“It is time to shift gears. The current situation demonstrates the need for
a new world health order and a new approach to development”,* said David
Woodward, a development economist from the United Kingdom . It is essential
that poor people are put at the centre of this new order, he said. Typically
those in poor, developing countries are likely to suffer the most.

*The PHM demands immediate measures* by the international community and
individual governments:

a)      To ensure adequate resources made available to revitalise public
health systems. Pay urgent attention to the needs of the poor rather than
the revival of failed big commercial banks.

b)      To allocate funds for the restoration of jobs and livelihood
opportunities in low income communities.

c)      To strengthen social welfare programs in developing countries and
for homeless and unemployed people in developed countries, and not to use
the economic crisis downturn as an excuse to cut funds of welfare related
programmes.

*Bridget Lloyd, Global co-ordinator: People’s Health Movement.*

*For media enquiries: E-mail:
*secretariat at phmovement.org<http://uk.mc506.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=secretariat@phmovement.org>
/  media at phmovement.org<http://uk.mc506.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=media@phmovement.org>
* Mobile :* +41 76 753 2979
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