This year’s World Health Assembly began and closed rather dramatically. This article describes the highlights of the meeting and the decisions made on various health issues which include the selection of the next WHO Director General, a global strategy on IPRs and health research, the medical brain drain and the prevention of STIs.
Equity in Health
An ‘exceptional’ World Health Assembly
Khor M: Third World Network, 17 June 2006
How decentralisation, insurance schemes, privatisation and priority setting in health can affect gender equity
Östlin P: Health Evidence Network
This review article, published by the World Health Organization, assesses the impact of four key health care reforms – decentralisation, financing, privatisation and priority setting – on gender equity in health. It reports that, in many low income countries, rapid decentralisation has led to difficulties in providing affordable, accessible and equitable health services, and may also inadvertently support a more conservative reproductive health agenda. Other findings include that: taxes and social insurance schemes provide the most equitable basis for health care financing; privatisation may worsen gender equity; and some priority setting methods incorporate gender biases, and so underestimate the burden of disease on women.
Putting women at the centre of water supply, sanitation and hygiene
Gender and Economic Reforms in Africa Programme, May 2006
This is a report from the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council and the Water Engineering and Development Centre. According to the report it is crucial to put women at the centre of water supply, sanitation and hygiene activities. Taking women's needs and preferences into account has resulted in a decrease in drop-out rates from school of young women, reductions in child mortality and maternal morbidity, and improved health for women and girls.
59th World Health Assembly
World Health Organisation, 22-27 May 2006
The World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body for WHO. It generally meets in Geneva in May each year, and is attended by delegations from all 192 member states. The main function of the World Health Assembly is to determine the policies of the Organization. This year, issues discussed included: strengthening pandemic-influenza preparedness and response; infant/child nutrition; HIV/AIDS; polio eradication; sickle-cell anaemia; smallpox eradication and the destruction of variola virus stocks; prevention of avoidable blindness; international trade and health; tobacco control; and intellectual property rights.
Africa’s three major killers in spotlight at AU health summit
AFP/SAPA, 4 May 2006: Awoniyi O
African leaders met in Abuja, Nigeria, in May to discuss the battle against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the continent’s top three killers, at a summit organised by the African Union (AU). The pan-African body’s gathering would be attended by attended by senior government figures from at least 18 African countries including SA. Health ministers from 24 countries and finance ministers from about 10 countries had confirmed their attendance; the central theme being universal access to care for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria across Africa by 2010.
Brief Review of the World Health Assembly
Third World Network Info Service on Health Issues, 30 May 2006: Khor, M
Last week’s annual meeting of Health Ministers at the World Health Assembly of the WHO started with the shocking news of the sudden death of its Director General, and went on to review global health problems, including avian flu, the effects of patents on health care, and the drain of doctors from poorer to rich countries.
Further details: /newsletter/id/31496
The Commission on Social Determinants of Health: Tackling the social roots of health inequities
PLoS Medicine 3(6), June 2006: Irwin A, Valentine N, Brown C, Loewenson R; Solar O, Brown H, Koller T, Vega J
The greatest share of health problems is attributable to the social conditions in which people live and work, referred to as the social determinants of health (SDH). Good medical care is vital to the well-being of populations, but improved clinical care is not enough to meet today's major health challenges and overcome health inequities. Without action on social determinants, those countries in greatest need will neither meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals nor achieve global targets for reducing chronic diseases. The article discusses the conceptual and operational challenges thus faced by the commission.
WHO called to return to Alma-Ata Declaration
World Health Organisation
At the 59th World Health Assembly, Dr Serag challenged WHO to return to the principles of the Alma Ata Declaration in "Managing the Politics of Equity and Social Determinants of Health". The briefing drew sharper focus on the necessity of major health stakeholders to step up action on the social causes of ill-health. High-level policy makers, civil society members and WHO staff attended the briefing, proclaimed as a "historical moment" by a floor delegate. Among the attendees was Dr Halfdan Mahler considered to be the father of the Alma Ata Declaration and former WHO Director-General from 1973 to 1988.
Social capital and health: Does egalitarianism matter?
International Journal for Equity in Health 5:3: Islam MK, Merlo J, Kawachi L, et al
The aim of the paper is to critically review the notion of social capital and review empirical literature on the association between social capital and health across countries. Findings of this literature review led to the tentative conclusion that an association between social capital and health at the individual level is robust with respect to the degree of egalitarianism within a country.
Global Health Watch and Global Health Action
GEGA
The Global Health Watch for 2005-2006 looks at some of the most important problems, suggests solutions, and monitors the efforts of institutions and governments concerned with promoting health world-wide. This report arises out of many civil society and professional campaigns and struggles for better health, and has been released to coincide with the Second People's Health Assembly, held in Cuenca, Ecuador, at which two thousand people from across the world have gathered to discuss and debate strategies to overcome the political, economic and social barriers to better and fairer health.