<br><span class="gmail_quote">From: <b class="gmail_sendername">David McCoy</b> <a href="mailto:d.mccoy@ucl.ac.uk">d.mccoy@ucl.ac.uk</a> and David Woodward <<a href="mailto:David.Woodward@neweconomics.org">David.Woodward@neweconomics.org</a>>, <br>
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<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Please see <a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.eg4health.org/" target="_blank">www.eg4health.org</a></span></font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This is an initiative we have been working on with a number of other people - the aims and objectives are self-explanatory, and we are hoping to be able to list tens of thousands of people onto the various sign-up letters</span></font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">So far a few of us have been paying to set up this initiative including an out-of-pocket payment of £1000 to get a professional website person to help create the site. So if there is any PHM budget to support this, that would be a great help. Hani, we had some initial discussions about this but it was never concluded</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> </span></font><font face="Arial" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Otherwise, please circulate this far and wide (I have pasted below a short ‘welcome note’ that you include in any covering letters). Also, please send any feedback you have on this </span></font></p>
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<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">Dear Friends,</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </span></font><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">We live in a profoundly unequal world. Over-consumption in wealthy countries sends us speeding toward environmental crisis, even as most of the world's people live on less than $4 per day - the critical threshold below which life expectancy is estimated to fall due to poverty.[i] </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </span></font><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">In 2000, all 189 member states in the United Nations committed to a blueprint for development that included halving poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, and providing universal primary education by 2015, but as of 2008 we were already falling behind on these goals [ii] Now, with trillions of dollars of wealth wiped out by the current financial crisis, the prognosis for global health equity and the world's poor looks grim indeed.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> B</span></font><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">ut crisis also opens the way for change. </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> A</span></font><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">nswering this challenge, a new initiative - <b><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Economic Governance for Health</span></b> (EG4Health) - aims to harness the voice and public health mandate of the global health community. In partnership with other civil society groups, we seek fundamental reforms of the global economic system in favor of just, climate-friendly and pro-health development.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </span></font><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">At the root of EG4Health are three simple points:</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </span></font><font face="Symbol" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol"><span>·<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></font></span></span></font><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">The global economy is critically important to health, especially in developing countries</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </span></font><font face="Symbol" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol"><span>·<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></font></span></span></font><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">If we hope to achieve global health equity, we must first restore democracy and fair play to global economic governance, free from the undue influence of wealth and power</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </span></font><font face="Symbol" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol"><span>·<font face="Times New Roman" size="1"><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></font></span></span></font><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">The voice of the global health community can and should help to inform, stimulate, and shape the required reforms to the governance of the global economy</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'"> </span></font><font face="Courier New" size="2"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Courier New'">Visit <a title="blocked::www.eg4health.org" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.eg4health.org/" target="_blank">www.eg4health.org</a> to see how you can help and add your voice ….</span></font></p>
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