PHM-Exch> [PHM NEWS] Report Equity and Justice: Access to Health Technologies for COVID-19

[Claudio Schuftan]

This is of wider interest than just South Africa.

*From:* PHM-SA <tinashe at phm-sa.org>

Here is a report from our previous webinar of 26 June 2020.

 *Equity and Justice: Access to Health Technologies for COVID-19*

PHM-SA held a webinar on 26th June to explore the challenges facing Civil
Society in ensuring equity and justice in Access to new Health Technologies
for COVID-19.

The webinar had two inputs. Yousuf Veriawa from UKZN mapped the Intellectual
Property (IP) environment
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/lZcIC3Q872FZOw9lcpyZMj?domain=u7158658.ct.sendgrid.net>in
South Africa and the important policy challenges and changes needed to
ensure that the regulatory framework promoted the right of access to needed
technologies. KM Gopakumar from the Third World Network sketched the global
context for health technologies as a public good,
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/vyp8C4QZgRFrqy9Ou54kH0?domain=u7158658.ct.sendgrid.net>identifying
some of the key challenges with respect to global governance if we want to
see new health technologies equitably distributed. Tracey Naledi from
Tekano, a health equity NGO, then responded, outlining what she saw as the
key challenge facing civil society in South Africa in working to ensure
equity in access to future technologies.

CLICK HERE
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/zumRC5QZj9FA2op7CV-WVK?domain=u7158658.ct.sendgrid.net>to
listen here to the webinar

In the discussion, we outlined the need for the following:

   1. *Action *to educate ourselves and communities so that people
   understand the issues and can campaign for access and justice from an
   informed base. We saw how the Treatment Access movement was able to achieve
   huge victories because all participants understood the issues and could
   assert claims to rights based on this understanding.
   2. *Action *to build connections across sectors and involving many
   partners. We need a campaign that is broad-based and involves multiple
   sectors, drawing, for example, academic partners, NGOs, other groupings
   into alliances with mass movements and CBOs, giving voice, particularly, to
   the marginalised.
   3. *Action *to monitor: We need to set up ways to monitor the quality of
   technologies and that technologies are reaching those who need them. We
   should build on our existing monitoring capacities and opportunities.
   4. *Action *to leverage policy change: We should initiate and take
   advantage of policy dialogues to ensure that ministers and policymakers
   understand what civil society wants and that policies prioritise the most
   vulnerable. We need to exert influence on policies so that implementation
   plans are monitored and there is accountability. We also want to see
   government commit more funds to Research and Development to address
   COVID-19.
   5. *Action *at the international level: We need to partner with other
   civil society formations to pressure global governance mechanism for more
   equitable decision-making and rules. This applies at the level of the
   African Union where South Africa is playing a key role. We need to identify
   who are the key players and influence them to support a pro-equity position.
   6. We noted two important *framing issues*:
   7. The demand should not just be for loosening of patent protection but
   should extend to the whole gamut of technology transfer and on a global
   level since it is not guaranteed that indigenous industry would be able to
   ramp up quickly enough to develop the capacity to manufacture these
   technologies in time even if IP obstacles were removed. In other words, we
   should be able to import these technologies at cost from other LMIC
   countries with the capacity to do the manufacturing. Further, it is also in
   the distribution of technology that we fail, so we must ensure that all
   along the care deliver pathway, the benefits of new technologies can reach
   those most in need.
   8. Civil society needs to be at the forefront of the idea of equity as a
   norm and undo the idea that inequality is inescapable or acceptable.
   Driving this idea will help to drive the campaign for access.

These actions and perspective will need to be fleshed out and taken forward
in a campaign over the next few months. We invite anyone who is interested
in getting involved in this campaign to contact us on secretariat at phm-sa.org.
PHM will be working with partners to develop a country case study
<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/jaQ2C6X1kRtXqE0vHQq8DL?domain=u7158658.ct.sendgrid.net>to
track civil society work on equitable access to new health technologies
over the next few months.



*Tinashe T Njanji*

*PHM- SA Coordinator*

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