PHM-Exch> PHM Secretariat: organizational matters 2009

[Claudio Schuftan]

Dear PHM friends

Greetings from the PHM global secretariat, now situated in Cape Town, Cairo
and Delhi!

Attached please find a summary of key issues and decisions arising at the
mini PHM Co-ordinating Committee meeting that was held in Cape Town.

The PHM secretariat is in the process of improving our internal
communication channels and will soon be sending out key information via
country circles and other programme co-ordinators. We would encourage our
PHM friends around the globe to please link up with country circles. If you
do not have a formal circle in your country, we would encourage you to get
together with other like minded activists or organisations in your country
and begin organising yourself into a circle. We will be forwarding more
communication in this regard in the near future.

We welcome your news of what is happening in your country

Warmest regards
Hani and Azza in Cairo, Amit in New Delhi, and Bridget in Cape Town



*Summary of the CoCo and handover meeting in Cape Town, 25 July – 2 August*

The new Secretariat is hosted in 3 sites: in Cape Town (overall coordination
& financial management, movement-building; RTH Campaign; PHA3), in Cairo (IPHU;
fundraising; WHO liaison; communications & information) and in Delhi (GHW3;
WSF; resources development); **

The work of PHM shall be guided by priorities set by the Steering Council in
our Global Strategic Plan. A *funding strategy to be developed* and a *fund
raising advisory group are to be formed*. Fundraising will be co-ordinated
through the secretariat.
*Communications:*

We discussed internal and external communication channels, tools and
contents: the SC should be sent condensed minutes of CoCo meetings,
secretariat activity, newsletters, detailed quarterly reports. Contact
persons (country circles, networks, focal point people, charter endorsers
and IPHU alumni) should be sent a quarterly activity report and other
relevant PHM information.

*Contact persons, country circle and global network contacts are to take
responsibility for forwarding global communications to appropriate lists in
their own networks. *
Some issues call for *wider consultation*: e.g., planning for GHW;
development of IPHU; development of the RTH campaign; PHM positions on
current issues; strategic directions of PHM. A *PHM blog* may be the most
viable alternative to promote active conversation. Do ‘tag’ items in all
Quarterly Reports so that issues needing responses can go to the relevant
person and can be  s*cheduled for discussion at the next SC meeting as
needed.*** *Communication tools* E-mails and e-mail groups / lists: We will
develop a set of email lists including: country circle contacts; key
individual contacts where PHM is not established or linked to a
project/network; IPHU alumni & IPHU faculty. ** Newsbrief (NB): Our
Newsbrief is an important vehicle for communication with PHM’s wider
constituency.  However, we need to explore the best format (hard copy or
pdf) and best means of dissemination.  Hard copies of the Newsbriefs are
useful for handing out at meetings, conferences, etc.  *A special
announcement should go on phm-exch when each NB is posted in our website
www.phmovement.org . We will explore other options for distribution: e.g.,
sending by post; country circles printing and distributing it to
constituencies with limited internet access, etc. We n**eed to evaluate the
NB and identify how it can be used better.*** phm-exchange: phm-exch is a
vital part of PHM’s communication strategy and we should explore how to
improve its usefulness including: greater linkage with the website (a teaser
plus URL links); digests; occasional digests in English of material from the
Latin American and Arabic lists; investing in a digest in Spanish and in
Arabic of material appearing on the English  exchange; sharing moderation of
the list; publicise other list servers rather than forwarding its messages.
It is p*roposed that we do an evaluation of phm-exch.  We are also exploring
creating a RTH Campaign blog for foods for thought to get posted and
discussed.* PHM Blog: It is proposed that we set up PHM blogs to allow for
more comments than is appropriate in phm-exch. These could be organised by
topic; or individuals could start their own personal blogs around PHM type
issues.  We s*eek further commenst and suggestions, particularly from
blogologists.*** Website: Our website is the repository and access pathway
for PHM documents and positions. However, we need to use it better and
routinely post PHM thinking and responses. We aim to get a smooth interplay
between English, Spanish, French and Arabic postings. The Global Health
Watch web will be managed by PHM. The w*ebsite needs to reflect current
issues; to explore greater contribution of country circles and IPHU alumni;
to evaluate the usefulness of the existing website and directions for future
development.***

*The Global Secretariat is to prepare a discussion paper on a strategic
approach to communications.*

 *Monitoring PHM contacts: *The Secretariat has a role in monitoring &
supporting constituent networks and countries, in particular supporting the
country circle building function. The secretariat is to collect and develop
a database which can record, store and retrieve information on networks,
organisations and individuals in each country (Charter endorsers, IPHU
alumni, RTH Campaign, etc)

**

*Movement** Building***

While PHM has contacts in many countries, not all of these have robust
functioning PHM structures.  Cape Town will take the lead in movement
building with a particular focus on Africa. This will include: identifying &
keeping in touch with contacts; organising public meetings and speaking
tours; running IPHU and RTHC activities. Movement-building depends heavily
on SC, CoCo members and on PHM activists and friends around the globe
– it *needs
to be part of all PHM activities*. *Further discussion is needed to build
closer cooperation among all of us in supporting country circles
development.***
*IPHU:*

Plans for the next 3 years include: 15 short courses (18 – 24 weeks of
teaching); follow up and support of the alumni projects; closer links with
country circles; fellowship program; internships program; library
development (in association with the GHW). *We need to improve the selection
processes and *make it clear that we are expecting something from the
participants after the course; we will *improve our **follow up of IPHU
alumni and projects*; *developing country circles; and library
development.* The
*tasks this entails for our local partners should be clear and will be
outlined in a one page paper. *

*Right to Health Campaign:*

The RTH&HC Campaign is a broad platform which includes both the Right to
Health Care and social determinants of health. Progress has been achieved in
country circle development although links between RTHC and other strategies
for country circle development need to be improved. We need to build on &
link the campaign with other initiatives, like the recent Stony Point
Declaration. There should be an *evaluation of the RTHC*: how it *promotes
rights and movement building. We should consider a narrow versus a broad
application of the RTH principle* and whether we should regard the RTH as an
over-arching strategic framework for PHM or one strategic initiative among
several; we will look at *funding priorities for the RTH and assess the
contributing value of small grants.  *

*WHO advocacy:*

We need to ensure that WHO advocacy is effective through: planning & having
clear lobbying objectives; starting our lobbying campaign with WHO early
each year before the WHA; developing evidence based position papers;
monitoring implementation of resolutions (e.g., for PHC & SDH); collaborate
with country circles, with other civil society groups (TWNetwork, the South
Centre, Oxfam, etc) and PHM members in Geneva; maintain communication with
key persons in WHO HQ and WHO regional offices; representation of major
language groups is key for the latter; explore an annual meeting with WHO’s
DG. We also n*eed to evaluate our work with WHO. The Secretariat  is to
circulate a draft plan for this  work for 2009/2010.***

*GHW:*

Key principles for planning for GHW3 will be: keep the same basic structure;
do not repeat, cover current issues of concern, depend to some extent on
volunteer contributions. We will distinguish between updates on material
previously covered and new material. The deliverables for the GHW will
include: the final GHW document; chapter translations, synopses on advocacy
resources and primers.  We will undertake some piloting for primers and
explore developing podcasts to reach out to those who primarily have radio
access. We brainstormed on possible chapters and authors. It was agreed that
the Delhi Secretariat office *helps to develop position papers for PHM,
building on the links to various experts necessary for the pulling together
of the f*inal  GHW.

*Thematic Circles:*

Thematic Circles are one of PHM’s key strategies for action and members
involvement. In addition to the WHO Circle, we have had a circle on Trade
and Health, Research, Economics and PHC among others.  Many issues warrant a
more focused approach (economic crisis, climate crisis, mining, water,
etc).  These circles can be time limited and should not duplicate work of
other networks, but could assist in building links with more specialised
networks. The planning and implementing of thematic circle projects should
be largely activist driven and not depend on staff. The Delhi Office may
support some thematic circles through the development of policy papers and
background papers.  The IPHU Library may involve ‘topic coordinators’
working with volunteers.  We will sc*hedule time for a more extended
discussion of these issues. *
* **Constitution of Steering Council*

It has been suggested that the SC might move to more formal representation.
Proposed was that it be constituted by four sets of representatives: (i)
country circles; (ii) networks; (iii) major projects (IPHU, GHW, RTH, etc);
(iv) ex officio.

Representation of country circles and global networks would be based on
pools,e.g., PHM affiliated networks would be included in the pool, which
would be represented on the SC by a rotating panel. Regional pools of
country circles, e.g., established country circles in Africa would be
pooled, and have two reps on the SC each with a term of 2 years, but with
staggered changeover. The networks and country circles without a seat on the
SC would have access to all the papers, but no vote and no financial support
for attendance at meetings. The key PHM projects & campaigns would be
required to demonstrate an organising group and to rotate representation on
the SC.  Newly emerging functions / projects / campaigns could be co-opted
onto the SC as necessary.  If a project became moribund the representation
should be discontinued.

*The Secretariat is to write a Discussion Paper on the proposed, ensuring
that total numbers are practicable and proportions appropriate.* *We also
need clear principles upon which the CoCo is constituted.***
*Constituency of the PH Assembly and PHM democracy and decision making*

There is a tension between PHAs being an inspirational gathering or a formal
constituent assembly with direction setting authority over PHM. Our goal is
to make it a constituent assembly, but this depends on the development of
the country and regional level structures. PHA3 (to be held in 2011) will,
therefore, be a hybrid of the two. Special status will be given to countries
which establish appropriate representative structures and run national
assembly’s before the PHA. Appropriate recognition will also be given to
global networks.

*The issues here presented are to be considered in conjunction with the
upcoming report of the PHA3 Feasibility Committee.*
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