PHM-Exch> PHM Europe

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Chiara Bodini <chiara.bodini at unibo.it>


 *
*
*International conference: health justice – worldwide!*
*The prospects for “global health”: debating the alternatives*

Side meeting organized in collaboration with the People's Health Movement
(PHM)
“*HEALTH JUSTICE IN EUROPE – networking workshop”*
*Berlin, 18.09.10, 3-6 pm

*
*REPORT**
*

Short *background on the People's Health Movement* – PHM (*Alexis Benos*).
Many people in Europe are somehow linked to the PHM, but the majority of
them work in the South of the world and not as much in the EU itself.

*Narendra Gupta* clarifies the* three main activities* that PHM is carrying
out worldwide at the moment:

   -

   campaigning for the right to health care
    -

   IPHU
    -

   publication of the Global Health Watch (two reports already published;
   third in process)

Basic PHM documents: People's Charter For Health; The Cuenca Declaration. A
draft for a right to health bill has been elaborated, but many aspects need
to be still defined before it is made available. More information at *
www.phmovement.org*.

After a brief self *introduction* (see attached file “Berlin_PHM
meeting_participants.xls” for contacts' details), each participant stated
his/her *expectations* for the meeting and for networking, as well as
his/her potential *contributions*. These statements are summarized in the
following table:


    *EXPECTATIONS*

*CONTRIBUTIONS*

   -

   Find issues and work together on them (e.g. education but also others)
    -

   Network on global health (GH) teaching
    -

   Know (or learn more about) PHM and PHM Europe
    -

   Develop new ideas around the issue of “global health”
    -

   Find out how the UK network for Global Health Education (GHE) can
   exchange and share experiences with similar networks across Europe
    -

   Get the students into the discussion on GH and GHE
    -

   See what we have in common
    -

   Networking for the right to health in the EU
    -

   Work on international publications in the GH field
    -

   Exchange local experiences
    -

   Experts and people work together locally on global health issues
    -

   Networking in the EU
    -

   Get GHE into the medical curricula and share experiences
    -

   Find out about grievances that people might have and that are not
   addressed in the fragmented GH governance
    -

   Open space where young people and experts/senior activists can interact
    -

   Discuss with non-medicals on health issues


   -

   Find a way to work with the PHM at the European level
    -

   Work on advocacy to the EU
    -

   Participation of PHM (Europe) to the Conference in Brasilia
    -

   Gather people of PHM EU
    -

   Exchange with PHM Asia, Africa, South America etc. for mutual learning
    -

   Put PHM Europe on the rail, rooting it locally
    -

   Get new ideas and inspiration
    -

   PHM Europe as a place to discuss education, research and practice in GH,
   develop interactions among academics and civil society in order to move from
   knowledge to action


   -

   Experience on issues related to drug policies in the EU
    -

   Enthusiasm, commitment, experience in GHE
    -

   Link up people and organizations in the UK
    -

   Links to people in London and in South America for GHE
    -

   Epidemiological expertise for research
    -

   Connections with students' networks in the EU and internationally
    -

   Exchange and sharing of local experiences
    -

   Academic experience on social security (political sciences perspective)
    -

   Experience and knowledge on GH issues
    -

   Help in building networks in the EU, helping to put PHM ideas in the
   public debate
    -

   Links with a broader platform in Belgium (social movements, trade unions,
   NGOs...)
    -

   Experience in working on the right to health + EU trade policies and
   their impact on health
    -

   GandHI experience (GHE for German medical students)
    -

   Academic experience + teaching
    -

   Experience on drug policies
    -

   Primary health care experience


 After a plenary discussion, the group split into three working groups in
order to address the main issues that had emerged:

   -

   *GLOBAL HEALTH EDUCATION (GHE)*
    -

      share experiences, perspectives, materials, training opportunities,
      academic resources, projects... fulfil the “responsibility” of being
      academics
       -

      possibly agree on a common curriculum for GHE (separate courses or
      integration in the curriculum?)
       -

      issues we agree on:
       -

         *GH is NOT Tropical Medicine (...but what exactly is GH?)*
          -

         *GHE should be student-centred*
          -

         *GHE should involve fields other than the medical one*
          -

         *GHE should involve civil society*
           -

      *ideas to be developed/implemented:*
       -

         summer school (or other kind of common training program that we
         could jointly develop) on GH
          -

         “adopt” a scientific journal, possibly open access, in order to
         publish papers on GHE (options: Globalization and Health;
International
         Health)
          -

         write an open letter to Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, in
         order to ask for help in opening a transparent debate on a GHE agenda
          -

         hold a specific session on GHE during the next meeting of this PHM
         EU network
           -

      feedback to be circulated as soon as possible and *next immediate
      steps*:
       -

         the document “European Academic Alliance for Global Health –
         Preparatory Meeting, 10.03.2010” will be circulated among the
whole group,
         in order to receive comments; *Oliver* Johnson, who is in touch
         with a couple of people from the Alliance, will reach them in
order to start
         a dialogue, present our network and understand whether there
is a chance for
         further collaboration (if possible, some representatives of
the Alliance
         will be invited to our next meeting)



   -

   *GLOBAL HEALTH ACTION IN EUROPE** (“local structures”)*
    -

      working with people in local structures
       -

      ensuring long-term projects
       -

      for which goals do we need “new” medical ethics + health education?
       -

         *re-empowerment*
          -

         *turning professionals from service providers to community workers
         (and vice-versa)*
          -

         *exchange of experiences and models (north/south)*
          -

         *develop non-commercial models*



   -

   *NETWORKING ACROSS EUROPE** (“communication-networking-advocacy”)*
    -

      social networking needed, not just email list
       -

      idea: *create a platform* (Elgg – open source social networking
      platform) + web space for exchanging information and for debate;
people and
      organizations can create their profile and participate to the debate,
      suggest issues for advocacy, etc.
       -

      in each country there should be a “focal point”, in order to do gate
      keeping and avoid that too many people access the platform
(restrict to PHM
      affiliates?)
       -

      English will be the common language, at least in the beginning
       -

      *Sebastian* (Heidelberg) and *Ardigò* (Bologna) will further develop
      these concept ideas and present a prototype platform to the group


Afterwords, the three groups met again and a person from each group reported
to the plenary. We then decided that the group from Bologna should be in
charge of sending a report of the meeting and administering the mailing list
in this first phase. *Andreas* Wulf will explore the possibility of a next
meeting in Berlin at the beginning of December. Everybody agrees that we
should meet again quite soon, possibly having more time to discuss in depth
the issues that we started identifying and that are of common interest.

*NOTE: people who want to receive more information can write to the
following address: csi.unibo at gmail.com*

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