PHM-Exch> Food for an overlooked thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 237



*SOME REACTIONS TO WHAT WE HEAR (AND DO NOT HEAR) IN MANY A PUBLIC HEALTH
CONFERENCE THESE DAYS.*

*                                                              *

Am I tired of going to such conferences? Sort of.



It is just that, in them, we hear about so many things that need doing and
have so long been overdue (…achieving the health MDGs, strengthening health
delivery systems, organizing and empowering beneficiaries to demand changes
….and on-and-on…). One gets the impression that it is in times of crisis
that we finally will bring to the fore what really needs doing and has long
been overdue… But not even in such circumstance does the needed happen in
our meetings of the learned; almost nothing substantial, beyond a passing
comment, is heard about taking actions to address the ‘condition of
poverty’, about disparity reduction, about addressing the widespread and
numerous violations of the human right to health and to nutrition; nothing
substantial and really deep-felt is heard about empowering claim holders
--or worse: the concept of empowerment is repeatedly hijacked by making it
mean giving women greater self-esteem, providing them with health education
and nutritional knowledge and skills and/or ‘empowering’ them to better take
care of their children.

The full text of this Reader can be found at

http://www.socialmedicine.org/2010/04/10/some-reactions-to-what-we-hear-and-do-not-hear-in-many-a-public-health-conference-these-days/


Claudio
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