Reporting back on the health research meeting from Mexico City
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December 1, 2004
A 12 member contingent of PHM members and resource persons at-
tended the Ministerial Summit on Health Research organized by
WHO and the Ministry of Health of Mexico and the Global Forum
for Health Research - Forum 8. Both meetings were hold in paral-
lel in Mexico City from 16th to 20th November 2004. The PHM
presence, input and impact was quite significant.
Key highlights are as follows:
Organizational Support
1. PHM had been invited to be a member of the organizing commit-
tee of the Ministerial Summit, which began the planning process
from Forum 6 at Arusha, Tanzania in 2003 (David Sanders of South
Africa and Convener of Research Circle was PHM's nominee on the
committee). At the Ministerial Summit, David was the theme coor-
dinator for the track on Civil Society, Gender and Ethics. PHM
was also shown in the programme as partners, who have provided
support for preparatory activities and the organization of the
summit along with GFHR, COHRED, MOH Mexico, PAHO, SIDA, DFID,
SDC and Foundation and trusts!
Background Papers
2. PHM was invited to be a member of a special WHO Task Force on
Health System Research, which wrote the main background document
for the meeting. PHM was invited to be on the Task Force. [See
report entitled "Informed Choices for attaining the Millennium
Development Goals: Towards an International Cooperative agenda
for Health Systems Research" in The Lancet Vol 364, September
11, 2004 and http://www.thelancet.com].
3. Even though some PHM concerns (not all) were included in the
Task Force report (above), it was felt that a stronger and more
focused PHM view point on the challenges of Health System Re-
search should also be made a background document, which was ac-
cepted and supported by WHO and the Lancet.
A dialogue of PHM related researchers was held in June at Durban
linked to Equinet / GEGA and other meetings and the commentary
based on a larger report, was published in the Lancet under the
section view point entitled "Pushing the International Health
Research agenda towards Equity and Effectiveness".
(See The Lancet - Vol 364, October 30, 2004 and
http://www.thelancet.com)
4. The Bulletin of the World Health Organization (also the In-
ternational Journal of Public Health) brought out a special the-
matic issue entitled "Bridging the know-Do gap in Global Health
(Volume 82, Number 10, October 2004)
A PHM contribution entitled "Making Research Matter: A Civil So-
ciety perspective on Health Research", was another key contribu-
tion to the background materials from the PHM research circle.
[All these three special journal issues were circulated at the
Mexico Summit and GFHR Forum 8 as background documents].
5. PHM's, short abstract "What Evidence? Whose Evidence? Who De-
cides? - Challenges in Health Research to achieve the MDGs and
respond to the 10/90 gap" was selected by the programme commit-
tee and featured as one of the keynotes in the opening plenary
of GFHR - Forum 8. This paper animated by provocative people
oriented cartoons and case studies proved to be a 'great inspi-
ration and provocation' and was then regularly quoted by other
speakers in other plenaries and parallel sessions.
PHM was also referred to in the same session in the opening key-
note - 'Public Health in the 21st Centruy and the Role of Health
Research' and another keynote speech on 'War, Economic growth
and health'.
6. PHM was invited to organize one of the working sessions of
the Ministerial Summit on Health Research on 17th November on
the theme "Involving Civil Society and the Lay Public in Health
Systems Research to enhance Equity and Effectiveness".
PHM also presented a summary of the Durban meeting of CSOs on
Health Systems Research, based on The Lancet commentary and two
short case studies ("People's Health Tribunals in India" and
"The Mount Frere Project of Civil Society improving health sys-
tems").It was resolved that a recommendation for greater in-
volvement of Civil Society researchers in Health Policy and
health systems development at local, national and international
level, should be included in the Summit declaration.
7. PHM team members made other inputs into several parallel ses-
sions and meetings in both the Summit and Forum 8. These in-
cluded:
* Ministerial Summit
1. Developing a Health Systems Research Agenda for the MDGs
2. Health Equity Research: From Science to Action
3. Persons with Disabilities and the MDGs
4. Making Research Matter: A Civil Society perspective on making
health research matter for the MDGs
5. Health policy and Systems Research: Informing the HIV / AIDS
research agenda
6. Participation as a means to enhance pro-poor policy process:
A CSO perspective
7. Financial Flows and Priority Setting
8. Civil Society organizations research in economics and health:
Why, What and How - Poster session
Beyond the MDGs (Special COHRED / PHM Session)
A special session to provoke Forum 8 researchers to go beyond
the MDGs to recognize the deeper social economic and political
determinants and challenges was organized by PHM in collabora-
tion with COHRED (Council on Health Research for Development)
Towards the end, PHM contributions included Changing Global Re-
search agenda: A Call for greater focus on the social, economic
and political determinants of health; Militarism, conflicts and
the MDGs; and Monitoring by Civil Society of the performance of
global health institutions - the need for an alternative World
Health Report.
Since this was in the last of the session in parallel, the key
conclusions were fed into the opening remarks made by Marian Ja-
cobs of COHRED, who chaired the final joint plenary of the Sum-
mit and Forum 8 on the 20th.
9. Two special request sessions were hosted by PHM resource per-
sons on the evening of 18th November:
a. Civil Society organizations as an untapped community resource
in Health economics research
b. Violence against women in Latin America and the Caribbean
On 19th November, a special meeting on the People's Health Move-
ment, the Alternative World Health Report and the Second Peo-
ple's Health Assembly was organized during lunch and specially
announced in the Forum 8 programme. It was attended by over 100
participants and there was great enthusiasm to know more about
PHM and to join and support its initiatives.
10. PHM also ran a very well organized and popular stall in the
Market Place. A very large number of participants visited the
stall to get to know about PHM, collect literature, make con-
tacts and establish linkages.
The News brief 13 was released and also two versions of the Peo-
ple's Charter for HIV / AIDS (GK Savar and Books for Change).
The PHM paper in The Lancet was in great demand. PHM South Af-
rica also released No. 1 of Critical Health perspectives, an e-
bulletin.
12. The organizing secretary of PHA 2, also held informal meet-
ings with local civil society / NGOs and PHM contacts in Mexico
City.
13. In addition to the rather packed technical input by PHM, the
Mexico meeting helped to establish very good contact of PHM
amongst researchers, academics, policy makers, NGOs and Civil
Society, Ministers of Health, WHO and related UN organizations
and international health agencies. While these are too numerous
to be enumerated fully, some key meetings and linkages may be
mentioned. These included:
- A rather rushed meeting of the PHM coordinator with Dr. Lee
(WHO - DG), during one of the dinners. He agreed to join PHA 2,
but we need to follow this up formally.
- A special breakfast meeting with Dr. Mirta Roses, Director of
PAHO, who promised full support of PAHO to PHA 2 and also the
possibility of support to travel of local policy makers and spe-
cial invitees from the region and for translation facilities.
- An informal meeting with Ellen T'Hoen and her colleagues from
Medicin Sans Frontiers (MSF), exploring collaborative initia-
tives of PHM with MSF at IHF / WSF and PHA 2.
- A good interaction with the representatives of the Interna-
tional Federation of Medical Students Associations and of the
International Pharmacy Students Association
- A positive meeting with IDRC, and other Canadian contacts, who
were willing to support GHW and other PHM activities.
- Meetings with potential PHM contacts in countries where PHM is
absent or still very poorly represented - Belgium, Cameron, Can-
ada, China, Denmark, France, Haiti, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia,
Norway, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Uruguay, etc.
14. The Mexico event was also a good time for PHM participants
to share ideas, concerns, perspectives and initiatives among
themselves in the numerous informal discussions over coffee /
tea and meals, about PHM, GHW, PHA 2, regional concerns and ini-
tiatives.
15. One of the most significant characteristics of the PHM Mexi-
can input was that the presence of the PHM team was supported by
WHO, GFHR, local universities and governments.This was an impor-
tant, significant, substantial, visible and comprehensive input
by the PHM team. This is both a sign of PHM's evolving credibil-
ity and strategy.
The PHM team ensured that at every opportunity possible, they
provided stimulus to enhance, strongly and consistently:
* Health for All perspectives
* Primacy to social, economic, political, cultural determinants
* Involvement Civil Society and People's organizations in health
systems research and policy development
* Contextualizing Health as a Rights issue, a political issue, a
social, justice issue.
These were also reflected in the final statement from the Summit
and Forum.
However, much more concerted efforts grounded in a stronger peo-
ple's organization base is required, if we have to impact more
effectively in International Health Policy. Mexico was a strong
step, but more and more needs to be done.
PHM Team in Mexico
Some Sound Bytes
"The Mexico Ministerial Summit must boldly and publicly assert
that the traditional bio-medical model of health research is
wholly inadequate to tackle disease alleviation in the less -
developed world."
- Lancet Editorial
"Give a shot to research before you get shot by donor driven re-
search"
- from PHM / Save the Children, UK,
Poster on People's Health and Economic Research Forum
"We "rocked" and rolled toward social justice in this meeting
with a palpable and qualitatively measurable influence on out-
comes (of the meeting)... We had more than 140 people sign-up to
learn more about the PHM at the "social-place" table, the lunch
meeting and the session Beyond MDG's....
- Lanny Smith, PHM USA
"You have to bring the public back into public health"
- Summit Bulletin on 19th November 2004