Last Update:  July 19, 2005 

Pledge to fight for "Health For All" - Daily Alert - People's Health Assembly - 4 December 2000

Daily Alert - 4 December 2000

 
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 Pledge to fight for "Health For All"
 
Hundreds of international delegates to the People’s Health Assembly (PHA 2000) at Savar laid flowers on Sunday at the site of the Jyotir Sriti Soud - Bangladesh’s national monument, in honour of the heroes of its Liberation War in 1971.
 
And in the same spirit as that of the Martyrs the PHA 2000 participants pledged to fight on till the noble goal of providing Health for All was achieved throughout the world. Arabs, Africans, Europeans, Americans and Asians joined together to make the People’s Health movement a truly global one.
 
‘People not Profits !’ , `Down with Drug Multinationals’ and `Health is a Human Right’ were among the slogans that rent the air in Bangla, Hindi, English, Spanish and Arabic, among other languages, as the delegates marched from the Gonoshasthaya Kendra to the National Monument in a colourful procession.
 
Solidarity of people resisting globalisation was the main theme of the march.
 
“I am here to show solidarity with fellow activists. There is need to create a critical mass of people for changing the deteriorating health, social and gender situation”said Dr. Mira Shiva, of the All-India Drug Action Network.”
 
The demands of the PHA 2000 participants focused on making the health and well-being of people the centre of all national and international policy making.
 
“It is high time to put joint efforts to place health as a human right. Humans are equal not just biologically but they should have equal options and opportunities.” said Dr. Ghassan Issa from the Health Unit of the Arab Resources Collective.
 
“Indigenous health issues have common root causes around the world and I felt that I could see how other people are coping with them and strengthen ties with them” said Irene Fisher of the Jawoyn Association, Australia.
 
“We are here because we believe in primary health care as a right of the people, which the governments are not doing anything about. We are interested in primary health care and want to learn from other groups here who have experience in this field” said Mahmoud Masri of Social Progress in Lebanon.
 
The five-day event between 4-8 December will discuss and debate issues such the impact of inequality and poverty on health, the status of healthcare and health services, environment and human survival and the way forward towards making the dream of Health for All a reality. At the end of the deliberations a People’s Charter for Health will be issued.
 

The NHA Calcutta Rally
On the Express track to “Health for all”
 

It has been a long journey for Selvi, a health worker from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Starting her journey by foot, she travelled by bus and boarded a unique People’s Health Train at Chennai to reach Calcutta, where over 50,000 people assembled for a Health Rally on the 1st of December. Their demand: the implementation of ‘Health for All’ in South Asia and around the world.
 
Selvi, of course, didn’t stop there. After the promising rally at Calcutta, she boarded another bus to reach Benapole (Indo- Bangladesh) boarder and crossed it along with over 150 fellow Indians and SriLankans. Selvi and her fellow travellers arrived at Savar, near Dhaka, to participate in the People’ Health Assembly (PHA). PHA will bring together over 1500 delegates from over 90 countries. “We are excited about the PHA. We are hopeful that this historic event will help to strengthen our spirits and solidarity”, said Selvi on her arrival at Savar, near Dhaka.
 
No: 2842 Coromondel Express was one of the five health trains that came to Calcutta from all parts of India, punctuated with banners and slogans - “Health for all - NOW”.
 
People from all walks of life - village health workers, doctors, activists, government officials, researchers, policy makers, political leaders, voluntary organisations, peoples’ movements, journalists and others - came together, keeping their differences away, for National Health Assembly. The Calcutta meet was the culmination of several months of work, which involved some 1,000 groups and 18 national networks. Preparatory action in different states elicited unprecedented enthusiasm and participation of a broad cross section of people.
 
The historic Calcutta Assembly, considered as a milestone in the Indian Health Movement, adopted a ‘People’s Health Charter’.
 
The deliberations at Calcutta, similar to the initiatives in many other countries, will contribute to the People’s Health Assembly at Savar, Bangladesh and in the framing of the People’s Charter for Health.
 
“Health is a basic right that must be a reality for all” says the progressive Indian People’s Charter for Health. The Calcutta assembly has pledged to “work unitedly to resist the globalisation policies which are adversely affecting the health of the people.”
 
 
Alma Ata 1978
Reviewing Another Broken Promise
Zafrullah Chowdhury and Mike Rowson
 

Is a vision of health for all still possible? This will be the central question confronting over a thousand people attending the inaugural People’s Health Assembly which takes place at the Gonoshasthaya Kendra People’s Health Centre in Savar, Bangladesh between 4-8 December 2000. The world has changed greatly in the two decades since the inspirational conference in Alma-Ata which set the target of ‘Health for All by the year 2000’ and often not for the better.
 
Average incomes in sub-Saharan Africa are lower than they were at the end of the 1960s, and half of the region’s population must now survive on less than $0.65 a day (1). AIDS ravages a continent also beset by rising levels of malaria and TB; many health services have simply collapsed and child mortality rates have stopped improving and are even in reverse. Despite the important gains in political freedom in Soviet-bloc countries, the transition to market economies has often been disastrous and is estimated to have resulted in nearly three million deaths (2). Latin America and East Asia have witnessed the fall-out from devastating economic crashes and South Asia continues to suffer from extremely high levels of malnutrition, deprivation and disease. Poverty and widening disparities in income remain a grave cause for concern in industrialised countries, even as they experience unprecedented levels of national wealth. Worldwide 800 million people still lack access to health services.
 
Despite an abject failure to reach the target, should we ditch the ideal of ‘Health for All’? In our opinion, no. The principles of primary health care (PHC) enshrined in the Alma-Ata declaration are sound and, as a recent UNICEF-sponsored study pointed out, were being successfully applied in several countries well before the declaration was written (3). Impressive gains in life expectancy and other health indicators in Sri Lanka, China, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Costa Rica and Malaysia bear testimony to the efficacy of some of the core principles of PHC, including the fundamental importance of government action in guaranteeing the social rights of citizens. Countless community-based health organisations, such as GK in Bangladesh and Jamkhed in India, whose work originally helped to inspire the Alma-Ata declaration, are still successfully guided by PHC principles. Broader impacts of the declaration are also noticeable: the emphasis placed on community involvement in health has animated countless popular movements, and participation is now a watchword in development planning. The need for health to take top priority in other sectors is also heeded more and more, especially in the face of repeated environmental and economic crises in different parts of the world.
 
Yet sadly, too often lip service has been paid to the Alma-Ata principles whilst in reality primary health care has been starved of resources. In this respect, the People’s Health Assembly aims to act as a force for change. It will give people the chance to discuss the diversity of health problems experienced at the grassroots level and to hear examples of how these problems have been tackled successfully. But perhaps most importantly, it aims to kick off a grassroots advocacy movement which can defend people’s right to health and make sure the Alma-Ata vision becomes a reality.
 
Such a movement is badly needed, as new threats to Health for All are emerging all the time. Globalisation has been accompanied by an increase in income inequalities both between and within nations (4) and left governments weak and cowering under fiscal constraints. The power of transnational corporations in the pharmaceutical and health- and bio-technology fields is increasing, but regulation of their activities is minimal. Basic principles of universal health care financing and provision are under threat everywhere, as health care rapidly becomes a commodity and the private sector moves in. Drastic environmental problems such as the changing climate and the depletion of the ozone layer threaten whole essential life-supporting systems, and are likely to hurt the poor and marginalised first. Virulent diseases emerge and re-emerge. Action by everyone concerned with health is needed on all these fronts.
 
At the international level, the World Health Organisation could still act as a beacon of hope in turbulent times, just as it did in 1978. But its position has been weakened over the last two decades and other organisations, most notably the World Bank, have taken the lead in formulating international health policy, sometimes with malign effects. The WHO needs to assert itself once more. As a start it could integrate its own internal structures and activities to ensure that comprehensive PHC programmes are developed; encourage governments, NGOs and international agencies to work towards a vision of health for all; stress the need for partnerships between health and other sectors; and advocate the need for major investments in health, especially in human resource development, without which Health for All will remain a statement of intent.
 
The inclusion of industry representatives in critical WHO policy committees, especially drug pricing, vaccine production, health care costing and the selection of the essential drugs list is rightly viewed with suspicion and the organisation’s partnership with transnational pharmaceutical companies needs to be re-examined. WHO must be an open and democratic organisation that can also respond to the grassroots: listening to the people should not be difficult for a former politician such as Dr Brundtland and it is regrettable that she is not attending the People’s Health Assembly. Her success as Director-General is dependent on the growth of popular health movements all over the globe.
 
The organisers see the forthcoming event in Bangladesh as part of a process which will lead towards the formation of new, broad-based networks for change. We hope that the Assembly will prove to be a significant step towards revitalising the powerful vision of ‘Health for All’ and we encourage everyone who shares our fears and aims to join us.
 
  

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