"As health workers and health advocates, we are witness to the fact that unhampered economic globalization causes increasing poverty, while US-led wars of aggression maim and massacre millions of people and destroy social infrastructure and our planet Earth itself. We therefore call on the peoples of the world to junk the World Trade Organisation and regional trade agreements with a similar character. Key WTO agreements such as the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) promote the commercialization of health care and deprive the people of much needed basic health services."
Governance and participation in health
NO War! NO WTO! Fight for people's health
International campaign information
Further details: /newsletter/id/30290
Realizing rights: transforming approaches to sexual and reproductive well-being
Sexual and reproductive rights for all are fundamental to transforming the lives of millions of adults and young people. Changes in legislation, access to information and provision of services provide an essential route to bringing about wider change. But alone, they are not enough for the most vulnerable to see themselves as having rights to safer and more fulfilling sexual and reproductive lives and to be able to claim them. In a collection of experiences of using participatory approaches for work on sexual and reproductive health and rights, researchers from the UK's Institute of Development Studies and the International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (ICW), show how involving vulnerable groups more directly in efforts to improve their well-being can make a real difference.
Democracy and the poor
Broad public services most important to the poor - health and education - are also the services most vulnerable to three distortions of the political marketplace: Lack of information among voters about politician performance; Social fragmentation among voters manifested as identity-based voting; and Lack of credibility of political promises to citizens. This is according to a World Bank Policy Research Working Paper. For decentralization to have a positive impact on social services, says the Paper, voters must be more likely to use information about the quality of local public goods in making their voting decisions for local elections, and political promises to voters at large must be more credible than when decision-making over local public goods was in the hands of regional or national governments. Support for better education and health outcomes, and support for political party development and the development of political institutions are important elements to enhance credibility in the political system.
How can the concept of community participation be effectively applied to improve health programmes?
Community participation is widely advocated as a mechanism to allow health service users to be involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of activities, with the aim of increasing the responsiveness, sustainability and efficiency of health programmes. This exploratory study conducted by the National Institute For Medical Research (NIMR), Tanzania reviews nearly 100 studies, mainly from the developing world. Topics covered include the link between community participation, governance and equity in health; and the factors explaining poor community involvement, despite increasing emphasis on decentralisation.
Community mobilisation key to success of 3 x 5
The WHO 3 x 5 plan envisages that community-based organisations, including groups of people living with HIV, will play a key role in scaling up treatment. This is not just a measure to plug gaps in the health services of heavily affected countries, but a response to evidence from early pilot programmes. These programmes have demonstrated that community participation is a key element in ensuring the acceptability of treatment. Making treatment part of the social fabric rather than a hidden enterprise is the only way to ensure long-term adherence.
Speaking up for HIV-positive women in Zimbabwe
Women with AIDS face neglect and prejudice all over the world. Many are denied healthcare during pregnancy or forced to have abortions. Some are sent away by their husband's family to their parents' home. How can their situation be improved? The International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS set up a research project to find out the needs of HIV-positive women in Zimbabwe. Women with the virus were chosen as team leaders and trained to carry out interviews. Following the project these women were better able to represent the rights of HIV positive women and play an active role in raising AIDS awareness in their communities.
PROVIDE ANTI-RETROVIRAL THERAPY TO ALL IN NEED
Pan-African Treatment Access Movement (PATAM) Statement
"On this World Aids Day, the Pan-African Treatment Access Movement (PATAM), a grassroots social movement for access to anti-retroviral therapy and other essential medicines extends a hand to our grandparents, brothers, sisters, friends and many others in our communities who relentlessly bear the brunt of the epidemic with unending fortitude. They are the ones whose attention does not stray away from those who lie immobile, as their bodies slowly succumb to the wiles of the HI virus. They are the young who are forced to stop attending school so that they can look after their even younger brothers and sisters because mum and dad have long died of Aids. We salute you!"
Further details: /newsletter/id/30130
Creating the will to practice participation: the role of donors, NGOs and recipient governments
All aid actors, whether donors, recipients or implementers, now talk of incorporating participation of the poor - but has there really been a paradigm shift? What do the major multilateral and bilateral donors mean when they talk about 'participation' and 'stakeholders'? What institutional and attitudinal changes are necessary to enable the poor to truly participate in decision-making?
Letting Them Die: How HIV/AIDS Intervention Programmes Often Fail
This book examines the context and social construction of sexuality, HIV prevention and community development, based on a three-year study of a large-scale HIV/AIDS prevention programme in a South African gold mining community. The Summertown Project was a well-resourced intervention that sought to promote sexual health through the treatment of STIs, community-led peer education, and the promotion of local participation and 'stakeholder' partnerships.
LEARNING TO LIVE: MONITORING AND EVALUATING HIV/AIDS PROGRAMMES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
This paper addresses the lack of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) procedures within HIV/AIDS programme design. It offers a practical guide to developing, monitoring and evaluating practice in HIV/AIDS-related programmes for young people, based on the experience of projects around the world. It focuses on recent learning from work with young people in peer education, school-based education, clinic-based service delivery reaching especially vulnerable children, and working with children affected by HIV/AIDS. Good examples of practice are included throughout.