PHM-Exch> Guardian Poverty Matters Blog/Sarah Boseley: Campaigners propose radical agenda to tackle ill-health

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: "Corinna Heineke" <c.heineke at healthpovertyaction.org>

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/oct/21/who-conference-poverty-causes-ill-health?INTCMP=SRCH

Campaigners propose radical agenda to tackle ill-health

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

Posted by Sarah Boseley Friday 21 October 2011 18.03 BST


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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