PHM-Exch> Statement by PHM to Executive Board of WHO, 20 Jan, 2011

[Claudio Schuftan]

The future of financing for WHO
Statement by PHM to Executive Board of WHO, 20 Jan, 2011
WHO faces a financial crisis. The increasing dependence on extra‐budgetary
funds relative to
assessed contributions is distorting priority setting. Allocations to the
social determinants of health
have shrunk while expenditures on medicines are growing although funding to
promote the rational
use of medicines has almost dried up entirely.
There must be an increase in member state contributions. There must be a
clear code of
conduct regarding voluntary contributions and donations, so as to prevent
conflicts of interest
between donor priorities and the member state driven agenda of the WHO.
The Constitution mandates WHO to take a leadership role with respect to
international
decision making on health. This should include holding the large donors to
account. Virchow taught
us that health is political as well as technical. WHO must accept the
responsibility of engaging in the
politics of health as well as advising on technical issues.
We are concerned that the ‘mainstreaming’ of ‘cross‐cutting issues’ will
lead to the neglect of
such issues, because there would be no internal champions. For example, a
strong gender focus
would be critical in addressing the huge burden of disease globally which is
rooted in gender
inequality and patriarchy.
These distortions are reflections of the terrible pressure that the
Secretariat is working under.
WHO must not retreat from its constitution. The bottom billion desperately
need a courageous,
independent and properly funded WHO. We urge the EB to issue a powerful call
to member states to
increase their untied contributions.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20110219/53daa750/attachment.html>