The People's Health Movement (PHM): Time To Take Stock
------------------------------------------------------
Re-Visioning the Global Health Crisis: The PHM's Position in
2005
1. The People's Charter for Health (PCH), The PHM's manifesto,
is five years old. It has been disseminated quite widely world-
wide.
2. The world has moved on since. But, clearly, for the worse in
almost all fronts the PHM has strong feelings about. Most worri-
some is the fact that most of the world's shifts for the worse
have become so depressingly predictable, and nobody seems to be
succeeding in doing much about them.
3. The PCH's 'Call for Action' predicted much of what we are
witnessing; we were and still are "on the dot". But to continue
to be "on the dot", we simply have to reassess where we are and
what we have, and have not, achieved. Just to make yet further
predictions of doom would be to utterly fail all that and those
we stand for.
4. The claims on various duty bearers made in the People's Char-
ter for Health have, in all honesty, mostly not been heard,
headed, or resulted in across-the-board improvements in the
right to health.
There have been advances, yes. But few we can call our own lit-
tle victories.
5. Our activism has not been commensurate to the fast changes we
are all witnessing in the world, i.e. tougher times call for
more commitment, more militancy, new activists in our midst and,
above all, more intensive networking and coordinated local and
global action. We need more and active national PHM circles!
6. Much more action is needed both locally AND globally; it is
not either or: it is both. Succeeding in mobilizing local commu-
nities is simply not enough; in the end, global events tend to
supercede the many local victories we are having.
7. Does this mean we deserve what we are getting? Or, is our
Charter too ambitious? The answer is two times NO.
The PCH is a long-term platform of what principles we strive
for. But to strive, we have to start acting. And the PCH does
call for very concrete actions. But a call is just that: some-
body has to respond to it! There just are no miracles; we have
to make them happen... Nothing is given to our cause; we have to
fight for it.
8. It all boils down to power relations. For us, power comes
from creating greater clarity about the problems and issues of
our times, clarity about their structural causes and how they
affect health, plus clarity about the best courses of ACTION to
follow to remove the major barriers and determinants of negative
outcomes. Power also crucially comes from coalescing into a
veritable global movement.
9. pha-exchange@kabissa.org , the PHM's list-server, now serving
close to 900 individuals and organizations, has opened a forum
for global discussion and education; it needs more contributions
from more members.
10. The PHM's website has been up four years now; it needs dy-
namic updates and also more contributions.
11. If, as a global Movement, we want to really be what we call
ourselves --as tough as it may be-- we all have to stay reasona-
bly up to date and provide people's outlooks on and progressive
analyses of what is happening (both in general and in health),
plus giving some guidance for concerted action. On key issues,
the list-server should thus spill into the website, i.e. the
website has to become the repository of our collective thought
and our concrete calls for action.
12. PHM is now organized in 'action circles' --small groups col-
lectively working on specific topics, mostly through email.
These groups are starting to give direction to our actions --
actions rooted in equity/human rights/sustainable development-
based analyses applied mostly to the most urgent global health
issues. These circles have to multiply from now on and show
greater productivity. Essential is that its members give those
circles precious time! PHM work should not be done on extra-
available-time, between 10 and midnight.
13. As regards the PCH's many 'Calls for Action' --all pointing
at blocking or reversing negative, and promoting positive deter-
minants of health-- all of them are still very much current. As
a reminder, these are calls for specific actions made in the ar-
eas of:
-health as a human right (and not only the right to health),
-the economic, social, political and environmental challenges to
health,
-war, violence, conflict and natural disasters,
-a comprehensive, more democratic PHC with adequate resources
and greater accountability,
-greater people's empowerment and their greater participation,
and
-stronger local people's organization and a strong global move-
ment.
14. The specific actions proposed in the PCH under each of these
headings are not to be seen as the content for a collection of
fitting slogans or as a wish-list. Eventually, the PHM will have
one or more action circles addressing each of these areas and
these circles will network with other groups already working on
each of these issues.
15. But for this to happen, more of each of us need to get in-
volved. It is, therefore, not sufficient for this short document
to reassess where the People's Health Movement stands in 2005.
Each of its members needs to re-commit her/himself: We need more
of your time! Perhaps the moment has come to abandon some of the
irrelevant work we all get involved in. We can no longer afford
missing the forest by focusing on the trees...
16. Furthermore, we are sure that --world events going the way
they are-- our potential PHM constituency has grown out there
(!). More people oppose what is happening. People are more anx-
ious than before to be counted-in in actions that will do some-
thing to reverse current trends. PHM will reach out to these new
strategic allies. We do offer a global and working organization
--with clear, explicit rallying points and principles (found in
the PCH)-- that is engaged in providing a sustained and coherent
set of proposed people-centered actions adapted to existing and
emerging situations. These actions may still be small and scat-
tered, but they are additive.
17. The People's Health Movement can and has taken up the his-
torical challenge to be such a network. Don't you forget that!
18. Yes, the world has become more complicated in just 5 years
since our PHA2000 in Bangladesh. And it is heading to greater
uncertainties, all negatively impinging on the health of the
poorest among us. But our challenge is still the same --though
more urgent-- and still calls for the main actions and demands
called for by our flagship document, the People's Charter for
Health.
19. We particularly call on delegates to and participants in
this year's PHA2 to join our Movement as active participants--
regardless of your official or non-official status.
[To start with, you should regularly visit our web site at
http://www.phmovement.org, contact our Secretariat at
mailto:secretariat@phmovement.org and join the pha-exchange
list-server by writing to its moderator at
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn].
--
Claudio Schuftan
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn