PHM-Exch> Health campaigners at WHO Rio conference demand changes that finally acknowledge link between poverty and ill-health

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Bridget Lloyd <blloyd at phmovement.org>


Sarah Boseley Posted by Sarah Boseley Friday 21 October 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/oct/21/who-conference-poverty-causes-ill-health

All people, everywhere, should have an equal chance of good health for
as much of their life as possible. That's not a revolutionary concept.
But when, as Professor Sir Michael Marmot, of University College
London (UCL), did, you examine the reasons for health inequalities,
there is no escaping the conclusion: that those born into poverty and
deprivation, without good education or prospects of a rewarding
career, are much more likely to live shorter, unhealthier lives than
those who were dealt a luckier and wealthier hand.

Marmot's work on the social determinants of health, both for the UK
government and for the UN, has been widely applauded. Many of the
governments he has visited – he now spends a lot of time travelling
the world to spread the word – say they are working on addressing
health inequalities. But even though his expert commission spoke of
the "toxic combination of poor social policies, unfair economic
arrangements and bad politics that results in the unequal distribution
of health-damaging experiences", the fundamental truth at the heart of
this – that it is poverty and social injustice that condemn people to
ill-health – is often diplomatically glossed over.

Not so in Rio. At a prestigious World Health Organisation global
conference on Friday, intended "to build support for the
implementation of action on social determinants of health", the stakes
were raised publicly. More radical health campaigners rejected the
official Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health,
which had been carefully negotiated in advance in order not to upset
sensitivities, and launched an alternative civil society Rio
Declaration.

Their demands are an anti-poverty agenda: they want progressive
taxation, wealth taxes and the elimination of tax evasion to pay for
action on the social determinants of health. They have the big
corporations in their sights, demanding that people everywhere be
protected against the marketing strategies of companies selling
tobacco, alcohol, baby milk substitutes, high fat and sugar foods, as
well as those of the oil industry. They want equal access to
affordable healthcare and oppose privatisation, and they want rich
countries to compensate poor ones for recruiting their doctors and
nurses.

Star of the day was Prof David Sanders, of the University of the
Western Cape in South Africa and the People's Health Movement, whose
rousing speech slating the official declaration received a standing
ovation from campaigners, while many member state representatives sat
silent. It ought to tackle unfair trade, he said, in which
agricultural subsidies lead to food insecurity and malnutrition,
especially in Africa. He accused corporations of buying up land in
famine-dogged Ethiopia to grow food for the west. And he accused the
west of robbing poor countries of skilled healthcare staff.

Health has become a rallying cry for those who oppose poverty,
privilege and greed. This is one genie that looks unlikely to go back
in the bottle.
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