PHM-Exch> Joint PHM Statement to 65th WHA on Social Determinants of Health

[Heba Wanis]

*Statement by CMC and People’s Health Movement on the Social Determinants
of Health (Item number 13.6) *
*to be delivered by Meike Schleiff of the People’s Health Movement * Thank
you, Chair, for the opportunity to address the distinguished members of the
WHA on behalf of Churches Action for Health and the People's Health
Movement. Action on the SDH is a critical requirement for achieving Health
for All but has been put at risk by the new priorities framework being
implemented as part of the WHO Reform Program. There is no provision in the
draft framework for the General Program of Work for the planning, budgeting
and accountability with respect to cross-cutting issues such as the right
to health, gender equity and the social determinants of health. There is a
serious risk that WHO’s work in these fields will be allowed to wither. WHO
is properly concerned with measurement and evaluation. However, unless the
indicators adopted for monitoring various programs are disaggregated using
meaningful stratifiers, progress on the social determinants of health, if
progress there be, remains invisible. WHO has a leading responsibility to
demonstrate leadership on the social determinants of health within the UN
system including in other UN deliberations and programs, such as Rio+20 and
the post-2015 development framework. There is a need to further develop the
capacity of the Secretariat to provide technical assistance in the
implementation of the Rio Declaration. We urge Member States to ensure the
necessary funding for the work on the social determinants of health. The
Health in All Policies approach requires that the social determinants of
health in fields as diverse as trade, taxation, TNCs, financial
institutions, and privatization are considered and addressed. The social
determination of health is much more than a collection of fragmented and
isolated “determinants” associated with classic risk factors and individual
lifestyles. We must recognize that behind those symptoms and effects lies
an ideology whose ultimate goal is the commercialization of life itself.
Thank you, Chair.

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 Heba Wanis
Project Coordinator
Democratising Global Health Governance
People's Health Movement
Global Secretariat Office, Cairo

Tel:   +2 022 268 22 78
Mob: +20 122 314 0318 (Egypt)
        +41 7677 07800 (Switzerland)
Web: www.phmovement.org
         www.ghwatch.org
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