PHM-Exch> Berlin World Health Forum – how corporations frame health as a ‘choice’”

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: <prundall at babymilkaction.org>

Berlin World Health Forum –  how corporations frame health as a ‘choice’

The 14th World Health Summit will be taking place in Berlin from 16-18
October with around 5,000 participants and speakers, including a large
range of corporations and their front groups with the main theme: – “Making
the Choice for Health”.   The Summit will  illustrate how private sector
interests have captured public and multilateral institutions – and how
terms such as inclusion, transparency, innovation, opportunity  are now
being used to defend and strengthen the commercial practices that subvert
and undermine health.

*For those who will be  in Berlin we would encourage a very different
event:  the Human Rights Film Festival – showing Tigers
<https://www.babymilkaction.org/tigers> – the story of the Nestle
 Whistleblower.*

We are concerned that for the first time WHO will be co-hosting this event
and feel this raises several important questions from a democratic
governance perspective. It also illustrates the  confusion that exists in
WHO’s understanding of Conflict of Interest Terminology.   Although there
are many at WHO that refer to Conflicts of Interest in the context of
infant and young child feeding – 8 WHA resolutions and many Guidelines  –
 these are set amongst many other  WHO texts  that are littered with
ill-defined and inappropriate terminology that encourage  ‘partnerships’
with the private sector  referring to  ‘shared desirable outcomes’,
‘values’, ‘genuinely committing’, ‘mutually reinforcing’ and ‘ common
goals’   – terms that are ripe for exploitation by corporations and their
front organisations who have no democratic accountability.  Indeed the only
 prohibition for engagement in WHO’s overarching Framework for Engagement
with Non State Actors (FENSA) is with manufacturers of tobacco or arms.
Given the crises the world is facing,  this muddled,  inconsistent and out
of date approach is unacceptably risky.

An example of the confusion caused by  WHO’s mixed messaging is the newly
formed WHO Foundation.  News that the Foundation accepted  $2.2m (£1.97m;
€2.26m) from Nestlé in 2021.  caused an internal furore at WHO.  The
Foundation has now told the British Medical Journa
<http://xn--https-nw3b//www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj.o2468>l BMJ that as a
result of this “feedback” it had redirected the money and has now
strengthened its “gift acceptance policy” and In future, will receive
contributions only from companies that do not compromise “WHO’s integrity,
independence, credibility, and reputation.”

Commenting on the move, Laurence Grummer-Strawn of WHO’s Department of
Nutrition for Health and Development said that WHO was “very upset” on
discovering the contribution and had demanded that the foundation return
the money. “The WHO Foundation was established to be distinct from WHO, to
give it more flexibility to receive funding from the private sector, to not
be constrained by the same bureaucratic constraints that we have,” he
said. “When
we found out about this, the WHO was very upset and said, ‘This can’t
happen. You have to reverse this now.’ And we discovered we had no legal
way of forcing [the foundation] to turn the money back or to change their
policies.“Since then, we have had discussions to say we can’t legally force
you, but you realise you are using the WHO name and you are doing something
that is in violation of the World Health Assembly. And they said, OK, we
won’t do that again. So we’ve corrected it, but we didn’t correct it fast
enough that they were willing to turn the money back and say, ‘We made a
big mistake.’ We’re left with this mark against us.”

”https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj.o2468

Its worth noting that in 2011, IBFAN, the People’s Health Movement,
 Medicine sans Frontier  and Declaration de Berne successfully joined
forces to stop the development of such Forums.

   - Medecins Sans Frontiere and Declaration de Berne join the call to stop
   the World Health Forum
   <http://info.babymilkaction.org/pressrelease/pressrelease17may11>
   17 May, 2011
   - NGOs call on Member States to STOP the World Health Forum
   <http://info.babymilkaction.org/pressrelease/pressrelease16may11>
   - WHO Global Forum in Moscow. Tackling food-related diseases: voluntary
   measures or regulation – carrot or stick?
   <http://info.babymilkaction.org/pressrelease/pressrelease01may110>
   1 May, 2011
   - Washington Post article on Moscow meeting: WHO takes on chronic disease
   <http://info.babymilkaction.org/pressrelease/pressrelease01may11>
   1 May, 2011

CLICK HERE
<https://edition.pagesuite.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&pubid=1ff097a9-bc26-48c6-95cc-33d72dc55870>
for
the 2022  brochure – *Health: a Political Choice*.   Click Here
<https://www.uhc2030.org/news-and-stories/news/health-a-political-choice-555270>
for
the 2019 version co-produced by the Global Governance Project and WHO).

The online participation is for free, see here
https://www.conference.worldhealthsummit.org/
*The main partners of the WHS below.*

*Strategic*

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CEPI, Charité – Universitätsmedizin
Berlin, ENI Foundation

German Federal Ministry of Health, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Roche,
Sanofi, Siemens Healthineers, Wellcome Trust, YouTube Health

*Major*

Bayer, Berlin Senate for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises, European
Commission, European Investment Bank

German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, Robert
Bosch Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation

*General*

Abbott, Boehringer Ingelheim, Fondation Botnar, German Federal Ministry of
Education and Research Max Planck Society

https://www.worldhealthsummit.org/newsletter-10/2022.html
<https://jpn01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.worldhealthsummit.org%2Fnewsletter-10%2F2022.html&data=05%7C01%7Cmccoy%40unu.edu%7C0364da848874406ec87708daad26825a%7Cb9fc8add5f9141cca6c8f00214e01d4b%7C0%7C0%7C638012679099312392%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=lAZZhkhE3L029hOBtuhPpdUW%2FYvXLWGchTaIWQw0h6E%3D&reserved=0>
Some useful presentations and materials on multi-stakeholderism

Compilation of COI materials relating to the baby food industry
<https://www.babymilkaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/CONFLICTS-OF-INTEREST-UNDUE-INFLUENCE-ASSOCIATED-WITH-THE-BABY-FOOD-INDUSTRY-Repository-2.pdf>

Vandana Shive interviewed about Bill Gates
<https://twitter.com/ronin19217435/status/1580660491751665664?s=20&t=PJpMMfNtIdZrAK6arVQHew>

2021.15.2.21.Australia MSH world
<https://www.babymilkaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2021.15.2.21.Australia-MSH-world.pdf>

IBFAN Africa 16.11.21
<https://www.babymilkaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/IBFAN-Africa-16.11.21-2.pdf>

2021.30.6.21. N4G-GBC
<https://www.babymilkaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2021.30.6.21.-N4G-GBC.pdf>

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