<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><br></div>From: <b class="gmail_sendername" dir="auto">David</b> <span dir="auto"><<a href="mailto:dlegge@phmovement.org">dlegge@phmovement.org</a>></span><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br><u></u>
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<span class="m_-8845659691903106816mcnPreviewText" style="display:none;font-size:0px;line-height:0px;max-height:0px;max-width:0px;opacity:0;overflow:hidden">WHA recognises that the world is not on track to meet the health-related SDG targets</span>
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<h1 class="m_-8845659691903106816null" style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:26px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">Progress stalls on health-related Sustainable Development Goals</h1>
The unfortunate truth, confronting the recent World Health Assembly, is that the world is not on track to meet the health-related SDGs.<br>
<br>
The widening gap between the promise and the reality was spelled out clearly in the report prepared by the WHO Secretariat (<a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=5996f9c949&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">A72/11 Rev.1</a>) which systematically reviewed progress – and the lack of it - across a broad collection of health-related targets.<br>
<br>
The data presented in the official report was echoed in many of the interventions by member states during the discussion:
<ul>
<li>that the family planning needs of 208 million women are still unmet is unacceptable (EU);</li>
<li>progress on malaria and multi-drug resistant TB has stalled (Canada, EU, Australia);</li>
<li>less than adequate progress in NCDs, HIV/AIDS, TB, infant and maternal mortality rates (Barbados);</li>
<li>inequalities in access to health care and immunisation (Zambia);</li>
<li>half of the world’s population do not have full coverage of essential health services and just under 100 million are pushed further into poverty because of their expenditure on health (EU);</li>
<li>unaffordable prices a huge barrier to access to medicines illustrated with Hep C (DiNDI);</li>
<li>exponential increase of environmental threats such as air, water and soil pollution, hazardous chemicals (EU, Canada);</li>
<li>climate change (Thailand, Sweden, EU, Canada);</li>
<li>water and sanitation (Zambia, EU).</li>
</ul>
Perhaps the most dramatic picture of the looming failure of the health-related SDGs was in a document published by WHO in December 2018 (<a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=6f4bcfa17e&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Are we on track?</a>) which compares promise and projection for core SDG indicators: maternal mortality, infant mortality, TB and malaria incidence, access to modern methods of contraception, UHC service coverage, unsafe sanitation, and child stunting.<br>
<h2 class="m_-8845659691903106816null" style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">New Global Action Plan for health-related SDGs</h2>
There is very little in the official reports which explains the shortfalls in the health-related SDGs, nor were there any insights offered by member state contributions to the discussion at the WHA.<br>
<br>
However, one positive development, which was widely commended during the discussion, was the proposed <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=9b7e637646&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All</a> sponsored by 11 global health agencies, including Gavi, the Global Fund, the Global Financing Facility, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, Unitaid, UN Women, the World Bank and WHO. These agencies have been brought together by WHO, with the support of the presidents of Norway, Germany and Ghana, with a view to 'accelerating' progress in relation to the health-related SDGs.<br>
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The draft Global Action Plan (GAP), which is scheduled to be launched at the UN General Assembly in September, is structured around three 'strategic approaches': align, accelerate and account.<br>
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<i>Align</i> reflects a commitment by the participating agencies to work more closely together, particularly at the country level, to achieve the health-related SDGs.<br>
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<i>Accelerate</i> includes seven cross-cutting areas ('accelerators') comprising:
<ol>
<li><a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=b0120b94b7&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Sustainable financing</a></li>
<li><a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=9b4fae5858&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Frontline health systems / Primary Health Care</a></li>
<li><a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=d4a7a1ac36&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Community and civil society engagement</a></li>
<li><a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=9db3dbe87f&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Action on the social, political, commercial and environmental determinants of health</a></li>
<li><a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=77fa3445c5&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">R&D, innovation and access</a></li>
<li><a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=26f9fd1727&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Data and digital health</a></li>
<li><a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=5300226a6b&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Innovative programming in fragile and vulnerable states and for disease outbreak response</a></li>
</ol>
<i>Account</i> refers to the setting of common 'milestones' for health-related SDG targets.<br>
<br>
Among the member states supporting the proposed plan at the WHA were Canada, China, the EU, Ethiopia, Australia, Germany, Japan and Thailand.<br>
<br>
The sole exception was the USA which took offense at the use of the term 'plan' which apparently should only be used for documents which are explicitly endorsed by member states.<br>
<h2 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left">Fundamental contradictions</h2>
WHO's Director-General, Dr Tedros, has staked his legacy on achieving the health related SDGs which he has positioned as one of the three main priorities of WHO's new <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=6dbda75979&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">program of work</a>, his 'triple billion' commitment:
<ul>
<li>Achieving universal health coverage – 1 billion more people benefiting from universal health coverage;</li>
<li>Addressing health emergencies – 1 billion more people better protected from health emergencies;</li>
<li>Promoting healthier populations – 1 billion more people enjoying better health and well-being.</li>
</ul>
Dr Tedros is to be commended for committing to outcomes rather than programs and for harnessing the resources and reach of the 11 participating agencies to this end.<br>
<br>
However, while the Sustainable Development Agenda for 2030 is an inspiring document there are deep contradictions between the vision of the SDGs and the daily dynamics of liberalised transnational capitalism: its inability to act on climate change, its dependence on exploitative trade and investment relationships, its failure to regulate tax evasion / avoidance, its cultivation of widening inequality, its macro instabilities, and its implication in imperial bullying.<br>
<br>
The Global Action Plan is a good initiative but much deeper reform will be needed if we are to achieve 'the world we want'.<br>
<br>
For full coverage of the WHA debate over the SDGs see the <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=7af00fd1bc&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">PHM item commentary</a>, which includes the WHO watchers' notes of the debate. Access all of the papers and debates from the World Health Assembly from the WHO Tracker at <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=16e8c591ae&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">who-track.phmovement.org/wha72</a>. Review previous Update Reports <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=462d53ab41&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">here</a>.
<h2 style="display:block;margin:0;padding:0;color:#202020;font-family:Helvetica;font-size:22px;font-style:normal;font-weight:bold;line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left"><br>
Spread the word</h2>
The purpose of WHO Watch is to contribute to democratising global health governance, through new alliances and new information flows.<br>
<br>
You can help by forwarding our updates, disseminating on social media and inviting others to <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=e699145d3a&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">subscribe to the Updater</a>.<br>
<br>
WHO Watch is a project of the <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=4b361085d2&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">People's Health Movement</a> in cooperation with <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=ee047410c9&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Medicus Mundi International</a>, the <a href="https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=6f70421770&e=916df65fd1" style="color:#007c89;font-weight:normal;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Third World Network</a> and a number of other civil society networks.
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