PHM-Exch> Update from the PHM global secretariat

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: PHM Global Secretariat <globalsecretariat at phmovement.org>


Greetings from the PHM global secretariat!


2013 has been busy from the start: in January we had a few Watchers at
the WHO Executive Board meeting in Geneva; a number of country circles
in South and South East Asia facilitating input into the PHM regional
post 2015 development agenda paper; and PHM global organised a global
and regional consultation on the post 2015 development agenda where
some of the regional consultations were presented; this was done as a
side event for the Prince Mahidol Award Conference in Bangkok. We also
finished off drafts of case studies for the Lancet Commission on
Global Health Governance; and organised a Steering Council meeting in
Bangkok.This was all in January!



The Steering Council (SC) meeting was the first held since the current
SC was elected post People’s Health Assembly in July 2012. The agenda
was full and there was general agreement that in future we need more
than two days for SC meetings. Regional coordinators provided very
rich reports about activities taking place in the regions. These
reports and a combined summary report are available on
http://www.phmovement.org/en/node/7068.



Key issues discussed at the SC meeting were:

Governance renewal: We discussed roles and responsibilities of the
coordinating commission, the SC, alternates and we reflected on how we
are doing and how we can best improve governance to support movement
building and activities on the ground – this will be an on-going
process of reflecting and improving.
We further explored the advisory council which is being formed to
recognise and give a role to those that founded, have built and given
direction to PHM over the years;
We elected a new coordinating commission and Sarojini and David Legge
were elected co-chairs of the steering council.



Post 2015 development agenda:

The PHM submission and all the reports on the country consultations
can be found http://www.phmovement.org/en/node/7037



Other activities that have taken place this year:



Development of a PHM position paper on a Framework Convention for
Global Health which can be found here
http://www.phmovement.org/en/node/7578. More information on the PHM
position can be found within the article jointly written by a number
of PHM activists and published in the HRH journal
http://www.hhrjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2013/06/Haynes-FINAL.pdf



Watching WHO during WHA66:

The World Health Assembly (WHA) took place from 20-28 May 2013 in
Geneva and was “Watched” (monitored, advocated to and reported upon)
by PHM health activists under the ‘Democratising Global Health
Governance Initiative: WHO Watch’. All reports and communications are
available on the GHW website www.ghwatch.org.



Global Health Watch 4: starting the discussion!

PHM will be driving the coordination of the GHW4. A planning meeting
was held in Geneva in May and work has begun on GHW4. If you would
like to contribute case studies, more information can be found
http://www.phmovement.org/en/node/7656



Building country capacity: the second IPOL (online international
people’s health university) has started:

We received over 250 applications from around the world for the IPOL,
our online version of the “Struggle for Health” course, and
approximately 170 young activists have been selected to attend. The
1st IPOL was held in 2012 and linked to the Cape Town IPHU. This is
the first standalone IPOL. A team of 35 facilitators will be guiding
groups of learners from the different regions. Maria Zuniga conducted
the first online webinar on Activism on the 30th June. A total of
eight webinars will be held and will continue to take place every two
weeks up until October 6th. More information can be found on
www.iphu.com



Regional IPHU’s in US and Europe!

PHM in the US and Europe (to be held in Greece) are organising IPHU’s
aimed at getting greater understanding about the struggle for health
and the political economy of health and strengthening actions and
activities in the region, thereby building the movement. Please go to
www.iphu.com to find out more information about the US course -
unfortunately applications are now closed.



8th Global Conference on Health Promotion (8GCHP), 10 – 14 June, Helsinki:

PHM had a good presence at the 8GCHP, with speakers, people chairing,
Fran blogging, various people “tweeting”, a PHM meeting and meeting up
with old friends and a number of new friends to PHM. In addition to
both Eduardo Espinosa and Ravi Narayan speaking at a plenary sessions,
Fran Baum, Ron Labonte, Lida Lhotska and Bridget Lloyd all were
speakers in parallel sessions.  The conference provided for tweeting
of responses, comments and questions at plenary sessions and this was
well used by PHM and particularly by Fran who as a new “tweeter”
quickly became very active! We held a PHM meeting attended by 20
people. Fran did a great daily blog for the BMJ
http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/category/fran-baum/



The conference organisers can be congratulated for encouraging
participation and inviting input into the statement. However during
the course of the week, the PHM group began to get concerned that the
official declaration which had a great analysis, was very weak on
actions. We therefore got a working group together and developed our
own draft Helsinki declaration. The declaration has been on the
website and is open for comments for 2 weeks. We will soon be
incorporating relevant comments and finalising the statement.



A snapshot of PHM activities around the globe:

Further details on each of the stories below can be found on the PHM
website www.phmovement.org. Here are a few highlights and more can be
found on the website!

During the World Social Forum (WSF), PHM and Oxfam France called for
action towards democratizing global health governance, realizing
equitable and universal health care systems, and addressing social
determinants of health. 3 workshops were organised during the WSF and
successfully attended by PHM friends from across the world. For more
information click here
PHM India: Over 2000 participate in mass protest at Mumbai on Food
security and Health rights issues. Anna Adhikar Abhiyan (Right to Food
campaign, Maharashtra) and Jan Arogya Abhiyan (People’s Health
Movement – Maharashtra) jointly organized a state level Dharana
Andolan on 22nd March, 2013 at Azad Maidan, Mumbai, to press for
urgent action on important policy demands regarding Health services
and Food security in Maharashtra.
PHM Sri Lanka carries on sharing many positive stories in their
newsletter – the latest one can be found here
http://www.phmovement.org/sites/www.phmovement.org/files/PHM%20Sri%20Lanka%20Newsletter%20May%202013.pdf
PHM in Africa developed a statement of solidarity on the deterioration
of health situation in Central African Republic
PHM South Africa has had a number of workshops this year e.g. on
unhealthy farming, Community Health Workers
PHM Gabon played a key role in Gabon signing the protocol to stop
illegal trade of tobacco! Country wide mobilisation and ongoing
advocacy lead to this success!
PHM Europe has issued a statement of concern about the state organised
attacks on activists and health workers in Turkey.
Building PHM in the UK! A plan of action has been developed for the
coming year aiming to build and strengthen PHM in the UK.

Please do carry on sharing your struggles, activism and activities and
we will find ways to share with others.


Yours in solidarity and till next time

Bridget

--
Global Secretariat
People's Health Movement (PHM)
Email: globalsecretariat at phmovement.org
Web: www.phmovement.org