This desk review provides an update on practice and experiences of civil society participation in the development of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). It was commissioned by Department for International Development (DFID) and conducted from August–October 2001 by the Participation Group at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) in the UK.
Governance and participation in health
Assessing Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers:
A Desk-Based Synthesis of Experience in Sub-Saharan Africa
Voices of the Poor: Crying Out for Change
Deepa Narayan, Robert Chambers, Meera K. Shah and Patti Petesch - 2001
This book is based on the realities of poor people. It draws upon research conducted in 1999 involving 20,000 poor women and men from 23 countries. Despite very different political, social and economic contexts, there are striking similarities in poor people's experiences. The common theme underlying poor people's experiences is one of powerlessness. Powerlessness consists of multiple and interlocking dimensions of illbeing or poverty. The organisation of this book roughly follows the 10 dimensions of powerlessness and illbeing that emerge from the study. The remainder of the book presents methodology and the challenges faced in conducting the study.
CONCLUSIONS OF THE 1ST INTERNATIONAL FORUM FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE HEALTH OF PEOPLE
HEALTH AS AN ESSENTIAL HUMAN NEED, A RIGHT OF CITIZENS AND A PUBLIC GOOD
‘HEALTH FOR ALL IS POSSIBLE AND NECESSARY’
The participants of this Forum held in Porto Alegre – Brazil, January 29th and 30th, 2002, call on all the people of the world, who feel the imperative to build a fairer and more equitable societies to rally around this declaration to publicize it and to engage on sustained actions along its lines. We understand that this 2nd World Social Forum starts a new step on the fight for the universal respect of social rights, particularly the right to health since we understand health as the expression of the overall quality of life, and not only the issue of access to health services. We denounce to the world the devastating effects the macroeconomic adjustment policies and now the militarization of international relationships are having over the quality of people’s life. We affirm that these effects are not the neoliberal economic policies’ exceptional, accidental outcome, but the real essence of its logic that aims at maximizing profits, regardless of states’ aim at social welfare measures; these policies are dividing the world into a huge social apartheid where countries and regions are relegated to the condition of spectators of the immense accumulation of international capital; they invariably result in deep inequalities and a perpetuating social injustice. The rich ARE getting richer and the desperately poor poorer, more so women, children and the elderly. The poor of the world are left looking at the rich as ‘from the other side of the shopping mall windows’, searching for an elusive paradise which is denied to them by the economic order that socially segregates the world and ecologically disregards it.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29018
JOINT CALL FOR EC GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE NEVIRAPINE IN PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) call on the Eastern Cape Premier to follow the example of his Kwa-Zulu Natal counterpart and provide the anti-retroviral drug, nevirapine, to HIV-positive pregnant mothers in the province. This joint call is made after careful consideration of the resources available to the Department of Health in the province. Research published by the Eastern Cape Department of Health, in the journal Epidemiological Notes, recognises that over 20% of women attending antenatal clinics in the province tested HIV positive in 2000. As a result it is estimated that in excess of 10 500 babies are born HIV positive in the Eastern Cape each year. TAC/PSAM believe that on the strength of the pilot studies conducted in Kwa-Zulu Natal, which delivered a 100% success rate, the lives of these infants could have been saved through the provision of nevirapine to pregnant mothers in the Eastern Cape.
Further details: /newsletter/id/29043
Zimbabwe: Global Campaign to End Catholic Bishops' Ban on Condoms Launched
The first global campaign to end the Catholic bishops' ban on condoms has been launched in Zimbabwe with a billboard in Harare and ad in The Herald carrying the message "Banning Condoms Kills" and "Catholic People Care-Do Our Bishops?" The prominently placed advertisements are part of an unprecedented worldwide public education effort aimed at Catholics and non-Catholics alike to raise public awareness about the devastating effect of the Catholic bishops' ban on condoms in preventing new HIV/AIDS infections. The campaign is being sponsored by Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC).
Communities Organising for Health
Community Working Group on Health and TARSC. Editors: M. McCartney and R. Loewenson. November 2001
The story of the first years of the Community Working Group on Health in Zimbabwe, describing how the CWGH surveyed and met with over 20 membership-based community groups across Zimbabwe in 1997, to identify the major community concerns about health, and to devise effective strategies for dealing with them. Providing a concise and comprehensive overview of the issues facing the health sector in Zimbabwe, problems associated with community participation, and a discussion of the best strategies for community based advocacy and action.
Contact: tarsc@mweb.co.zw
People's Summit - Health Committee for G6B (Group of 6 Billion)
International Society for Peace and Human Rights
We are organizing a People's Summit, the G6B Conference to be held just prior to the G8 meeting in June, 2002 in Calgary, Canada. The People's Summit will address issues of global importance. In researching HIV in Africa for the People's Summit, we are requesting information regarding the following:
* What are the areas of interest for your organization?
* Can you provide us with specific information in the areas of your work regarding HIV in Africa?
* Are you interested in collaborating with the People's Summit Conference?
* Can your organization join the Conference? Are you able to fund the participation of a delegate to the Conference? We are looking for experts in this area to join a Health Committee Panel during the Conference. Do you know of any such persons who would be suitable for this?
More information on the G6B Conference can be found at the website.
Contact: acruz@oanet.com
Expanding Community Action on HIV/AIDS
NGO/CBO strategies for scaling-up
EThis report shares the highlights and lessons learned from the third year of "Community Lessons, Global Learning", a collaboration between the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and Positive Action, GlaxoSmithKline. The report includes approaches to the HIV/AIDS pandemic over the past twenty years that work. It highlights applications for moving from successful small scale projects that reach relatively few individuals to effective strategies that really make an impact on the pandemic is the challenge. Posing the question, “How can individual NGOs/CBOs scale-up their own contribution to effective responses.”
Africa: Right to health campaign
Africa Action
Africa Action will fight for the following goals:
1. unconditional cancellation of Africa’s illegitimate foreign debt, 2. equal access to drugs and treatment, 3. an end to IMF/ World Bank colonialism, 4. an end to discrimination on the basis of race, gender, and HIV status, and 5. promotion of a public discourse on reparations (the need for the West to invest in Africa’s health care as an obligation— not charity). For a wide range of campaign resources, visit the Africa Action website.
Health before wealth
Demand the WTO change its patent rules
Every day 37,000 people die from preventable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.* Most of these deaths are in the developing world where many life-saving drugs are unaffordable because they are patented under rules set by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). There is now a strong movement of governments, charities, churches, activist groups and health bodies urging the WTO to change these rules to allow countries the right to make vital medicines more cheaply. However a few rich WTO members - particularly the United States - are blocking these moves, and pressurising developing countries to apply even more restrictive rules at national level. Oxfam, Third World Network and Health Gap Coalition are part of a global alliance which is urging WTO members, in particular the US, to demonstrate their commitment to put people's health before the profits of powerful drugs companies. Will you help us change the WTO rules? Add your name to our petition which we will present to the WTO at its forthcoming summit.