The 44th Health Ministers' Conference meeting was attended by Hon Ministers of Health and senior officials from member states in east, central and southern Africa, health experts, and collaborating partners. The theme of the conference was “Scaling up cost effective interventions to attain the Millennium Development Goals”. The conference approved and adopted resolutions based on the sub themes of the conference that are presented in this document.
Equity in Health
Conference Resolutions of the 44th Regional Health Ministers' Conference in east, central and southern Africa
ECSA: Arusha Tanzania, 12-16 March 2007
From "Marvelous Momentum" to Health Care for All
Farmer P: Foreign Affairs, 2007
The last quarter of the twentieth century saw little investment in international health or in the health problems of the world's poor. Over the past few years, as Laurie Garrett notes, "driven by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, a marvelous momentum for health assistance has been built and shows no signs of abating." But after this upbeat introduction, Garrett proceeds to lay out the perils associated with this new momentum, chief among them that an influx of AIDS money has drawn attention away from other health problems of the poor, weakened public health systems, contributed to brain drain, and failed to reach those most in need.
Equity, by what measure?
Houston S: Health Promotion Journal of Australia 17:206-10, 2006
Equity has in many instances been framed around the notion of fairness. But the metric used to determine what is fair leaves some people at a disadvantage because the things that they value are not always taken properly into account. The debate about judging equity – about measuring fairness – needs to find the conceptual and methodological space to allow the voices and claims of the other to be heard.
The role of health promotion: Between global thinking and local action
King L: Health Promotion Journal of Australia 17:196-9, 2006
The persistence of health inequities provides an ongoing challenge for health promotion. The dictum 'think globally, act locally' fails to recognise the significance of infrastructure and policy in linking global issues and local practices as a means of addressing health inequities. This article is in the form of a commentary and opinion, and final comments include that Health promotion needs to beg, borrow and build political and media advocacy skills if it is to go beyond local demonstration projects and have the capacity to promote population health and address health inequities.
A lens on the World Social Forum
Editor, EQUINET newsletter
In the February newsletter we carried stories of the World Social Forum held in January 2007 and called for comment and report from those who attended. In this issue we carry three of the responses, that give a different set of lenses on and expectations of the WSF. They signal aspirations and contradictions that seemed to resonate across the WSF. The WSF offered all the potential of an agenda of social justice, international solidarity, gender equality, peace and defence of the of the environment. This made reports of big business sales of food, corporate signs and overshadowing of local people by international organisations harsh and visible contradictions. But the WSF also gave visibility and support to struggles for health and an opportunity to amplify the call on African Union member states to meet their commitments in health, like the pledge to spend 15% of government spending on health. If the “battle for ideas” is central to the building of alternatives, the WSF taught that it is not only the content of the ideas that count, but who owns and voices them.
Dialogue between Africans and Asians at the World Social Forum: “Struggles in the South are changing the World!”
Mwajuma Masaiganah, Tanzania
Prior to the World Social Forum in Nairobi, as people from African and Asian countries in “the South” we met and discussed over two days our conditions, our experience and how we can work to construct an Africa and an Asia where we can control our resources and make decisions in the interests of ordinary people.
Further details: /newsletter/id/32104
The role of academics at the WSF
Fred Mugisha, Kenya
I'm apprehensive- what can I, an academic, write about the World Social Forum (WSF) January 2007? This WSF in Nairobi was the first I had attended. I was invited by the Eastern Africa Coalition on Economic social and cultural rights under the Human rights caucus to discuss how evidence from research supports civil society efforts. I met several groups of people from all walks of life, and from all over the world – farmers, people living in slums, refugees, gay people, those fighting for the rights of the poor, and others. After my talk, a Civil Society Organization (CSO) leader came to me and said: “Mugisha, thank for your talk. We in civil society have the guns, but we lack bullets”. For a moment, I did not understand. Was he talking about a guerilla war? Later I understood him to mean that civil society have the platform, but lack the evidence to inform and sharpen their messages for maximum impact.
Further details: /newsletter/id/32120
World Social Forum: Demand political liberation of communities to take control of right to health
Thomas Deve, Zimbabwe
Kasarani, an otherwise sleepy stadium in Nairobi, Kenya was a beehive of activity in January. Thousands of activists from all corners of the world thronged the stadium for the World Social Forum in search of a path to sustainable development, social and economic justice, continuing a tradition that started with the first the WSF, organized in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001. For all of us present, we realise that building another world is possible, but through alternative models for people-centred and self-reliant progress, and not the current neo-liberal globalization. Those who work on health had a clear message on what that means for health. “Health is a fundamental right. The time has come work for the right to health, to put in place universal, comprehensive and equitable health systems and social security.”
Further details: /newsletter/id/32121
World Social Forum: Trade fair to Left politics?
Bond P: Pambazuka News 289, February 2007
In this article Patrick Bond assesses the aftermath of the World Social Forum (WSF), held from January 20-25 in Nairobi. It documents that there were some triumphs for social justice, but also some worrying trends that emerged from the forum. Bond examines what it means for the future of the WSF concept. It describes how a mixed message - combining celebration and autocritique - is in order, in the wake of the Nairobi World Social Forum. From January 20-25, the 60,000 registered participants heard the triumph of radical rhetoric and yet, too, witnessed persistent defeats for social justice causes - especially within the WSF's own processes.
WSF007? Loved it!!!
Kachingwe N: AGP Global Action News, February 2007
This author introduces themselves as an overtly vocal critic. She reports being most disheartened about the avalanche of negative writing that has thundered from on high on the WSF and discusses ways in which the 2007 World Social Forum (WSF-Africa)produced failures and achievements. She ends on a high note "From the bottom of my heart to all those people who came to WSF, who organised their workshops, seminars, tribunals and marches, who set up their tents and sat through hours of discussion, who travelled for 3 days on the bus, who got grey hairs being in the organising committees or dealing with the organising committees, whose possessions were stolen or burnt, who lost luggage, who were denied visas, who monopolised communication services, who catered, who invaded the caterers, who brought partners, ex-presidents and Nobel prize winners, who played drums and rapped and sang and danced, who spoke for an hour rather than 10 minutes, who shared their personal experiences, who wrote all manner of nasty articles, who ripped us off in taxis, who cleaned the portable toilets for little thanks, who printed not so practical programmes .... everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone ... till we meet again ... ASANTE SANA! VIVA!"