The People’s Health Movement (PHM) calls on health activists and public health practitioners around the world to hold their governments accountable for the work of WHO. Governments must be accountable both for their contribution to WHO (financial and technical) and for their implementation of agreed policies.  Governments must be held accountable by the activists, organisations and movements who care about better health domestically and who also stand in solidarity with people in other countries – Health for All!

Countries who are members of WHO’s Executive Board (below) should know that their positions on critical global health issues are being watched by activists, organisations and movements in their own countries – informed in part by the work of WHO Watch (see below).

Among the issues the Executive Board (EB) will be considering this January (Jan 25-Feb 3) are:

• The Ebola crisis,

• Outcome of the Second International Conference on Nutrition,

• Childhood Obesity,

• Prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs),

• Violence and health (in particular against women and children),

• Epilepsy,

• Air pollution,

• Climate and health,

• Women’s health 20 years after the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action,

• Antimicrobial resistance,

• Malaria,

• Dengue,

• Immunisation,

• Emergency and essential surgical care and anaesthesia,

• WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel,

• Medicines and intellectual property.

PHM has prepared background briefings on all of the issues on the EB agenda combined with critical comment from the PHM perspective.  All of these briefings are linked from PHM’s EB index page (http://www.ghwatch.org/who-watch/eb136).  A downloadable integrated commentary (as pdf) is also available from this page. This commentary is a work in progress as several Secretariat papers are still not published (two weeks before the meeting starts).  The PHM commentary is at this stage only available in English.

PHM urges health activists and public health practitioners, particularly in the EB countries, to identify their priority issues and ensure that their government representatives take a Health For All position and rights based approach on those issues. The key questions which will be in focus under each item are highlighted in the PHM commentary.

WHO is a critical organisation for global health but over the last 25 years it has been increasingly hobbled by the freeze on mandatory member state financial contributions and increasing dependence on donors (rich countries, philanthropies, World Bank etc).  The freeze on mandatory contributions was imposed by the rich countries in order to prevent WHO from engaging with the political and economic factors which shape global health, for example, trade agreements and pharmaceutical monopolies.  PHM is committed to restoring WHO to the vision of its Constitution; properly funded, protected from corporate arm twisting, democratically governed and refocused on Health for All.

PHM is a global network of organisations working locally, nationally and globally for Health for All.  Our basic platform is articulated in the People’s Charter for Health which was adopted at the first People’s Health Assembly in Savar in Bangladesh in December 2000. More about PHM can be found at www.phmovement.org.

PHM follows closely the work of WHO, both through the Secretariat and the Governing Bodies. A team of PHM volunteers will be attending the EB meeting, following the debate, talking with delegates and making statements to the Board. PHM is part of a wider network of organisations committed to democratising global health governance and working through the WHO Watch project.  More about WHO Watch at: www.ghwatch.org/who-watch.

PHM country circles are asked to forward this announcement to public health networks and health activists organisations.

Current members of WHO’s EB (official page here):

Albania

Andorra

Argentina

Australia

Azerbaijan

Belgium

Brazil

Chad

China

Croatia

Cuba

Democratic People's Republic of Korea

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Egypt

Eritrea

Gambia

Iran

Japan

Kuwait

Lebanon

Liberia

Lithuania

Malaysia

Maldives

Namibia

Nepal

Panama

Republic of Korea

Russian Federation

Saudi Arabia

South Africa

Suriname

United Kingdom

USA

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Posted by: Claudio Schuftan <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>

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