Global Health Watch
-------------------
Dear Friends,
Medact, together with the People's Health Movement and GEGA, is
planning the publication of the Global Health Watch, a report
providing a civil society view on the state of the world's
health (see accompanying flyer, below).
In preparation for this report, Medact is calling for testimo-
nies from civil society on the different issues covered by the
report. We will launch this call in several waves: firstly, we
are looking for testimonies on the effects of the marketization
of:
1. Health care provision in the developing world. Issues we are
particularly interested in are:
* the effects of privatisation and commercialisation on access
to health care and the quality of health care. For example, has
privatisation led health providers to see health care as a busi-
ness rather than a public service? Has it resulted in an in-
crease in user fees? Have profit-motives led to an increase in
unethical practices such as using cheaper drugs that do not
work?
* ways in which advocacy has improved access to health services
(such as report cards for public services; participatory budget-
ing; and health consumer protection groups).
2. Water, sanitation and electricity services.
* What is the effect of privatisation on access to these ser-
vices? How does reduced access to water, for example, affect the
poor? What is the effect on cost and quality of these services?
The testimonies will feed into and support arguments put forward
in the publication. They will also be organised thematically and
geographically and available for public access on the web. Tes-
timonies should be no more than 800 words in length.
We hope that the Global Health Watch will form a mechanism to
express and amplify civil society's concerns about the increase
in marketisation and commercialisation of key public services
and goods. Join us in this venture by helping us collate the
testimonies of the poor. Please e-mail
Patricia Morton
mailto:patriciamorton@medact.org
With many thanks,
Patricia Morton
For the Global Health Watch team
mailto:patriciamorton@medact.org
--
Global Health Watch
Global civil society has not adequately participated in interna-
tional health advocacy. Although high-profile success has been
achieved with some campaigns, most notably around access to
medicines and breastfeeding and certain diseases, there has been
a striking lack of involvement and pressure from health cam-
paigners on broader public health and health systems issues. In
addition, disparities in health between the rich and the poor
have grown at alarming rates both within and between countries,
leaving society and the public health movement with a large hu-
manitarian and moral challenge.
The increasingly global dimensions of poverty, disease and
health policy require a much more vigorous input from public
health experts, civil society and non-government organisations.
The People's Health Movement, the Global Equity Gauge Alliance
and Medact therefore propose to mobilise a fragmented global
health community through the publication of an annual Global
Health Watch. This publication will be used to shift the health
policy agenda away from a technocratic approach to delivering
health, to one that recognises the important political, social
and economic barriers which prevent the achievement of better
health.
We want the Watch to strengthen the calls for a broad approach
to health amongst policy-makers, health professionals, campaign-
ers, researchers and others concerned with health and to act as
a reality-check on those formulating health policy by providing
a forum which magnifies the voice of the poor and vulnerable and
those who work with them.
The Watch will consist of a compilation of chapters on various
global health issues written by NGOs and academics. Stories, ex-
periences and analysis direct from poor communities will be
threaded through the chapters and enable those who are tradi-
tionally unheard to voice their concerns on global health is-
sues:
The Global Health Watch team is now looking both for authors to
write chapters and for stories and experiences from around the
world. For more information on the areas we are covering, go the
Medact website:
http://www.medact.org
--
Medact
The Grayston Centre
28 Charles Square
London N1 6HT, United Kingdom
Tel: +44-20-7324-4733
Fax: +44-20-7324-4734
mailto:patriciamorton@medact.org
http://www.medact.org
--
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