Sphiwe Mazibuko's 9 minute documentary exposes the intimidation and violence facing anti-mining activists on the Wild Coast and Zululand, in South Africa. Xolobeni residents have fought for 10 years to prevent an Australian company from mining their titanium rich dunes. The film documents how an unwavering response of the Pondo people to protect their traditional Wild Coast lands, where they have lived for over 1500 years, has been met by increasing intimidation and violence with activist lives threatened and attacked.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
UnderMining Life: Activists threatened in South Africa
Mazibuko S: Earthlore, April 2016
Activists lead fight for the right to cheaper drugs
Health Systems Trust, 12 April 2016
Southern African states are being alerted to the concessions on intellectual property rights that they can take advantage of within the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects on Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) by the Southern African Regional Programme of Access to Medicines and Diagnostics (SARPAM). SARPAM is communicating the flexibilities within the TRIPS to protect public health, including compulsory licensing and parallel importation, as they note that many of these concessions are not yet being used by African countries to access essential medicines. They article reports ways that states and activists have advanced use of these flexibilities. For example in 2002, Zimbabwe used of one of them after declaring a period of emergency to override anti-retroviral medicine patents to import generic medicines for HIV. The article notes that the issue still demands activism. In March 2016, for example, activists marched to the Johannesburg offices of the multinational pharmaceutical company Roche to put pressure on the company to lower the extremely high cost of a life-saving cancer drug.
Collected readings on post extractivism
Various authors: Yes to Life, No to Mining, 2016
This collection of writings draws together the thoughts of scholars, activists, historians and social commentators on post-extractivism in different contexts. As a system of thought and action, post-extractivism offers a new and radical approach to the problems caused by mining and extractivism in general. Founded in philosophies of Buen Vivir (Good Living) it proposes radical alternatives to current models of ‘development’ thinking that support an oppressively extractive, non-reciprocal relationship with Earth and each other, and suggests fields of action and transition to change the current status-quo.
Increasing Access to High-Quality, Safe Health Technologies Across Africa: African Union Model Law on Medical Products Regulation
PATH, NEPAD, March 2016
The regulation of health technologies is a critical component of every country’s public health system and ensures that high-quality, safe health technologies reach the people who need them most. To harness momentum for regulatory harmonization, the Pan-African Parliament, New Partnership for African Development, and African Union Commission spearheaded the development of the African Union Model Law on Medical Products Regulation, which guides member states and regional economic communities in harmonizing regulatory systems and providing an enabling environment for the development and scale-up of health technologies. This paper outlines the measures for implementation of the law.
The China Africa Project
Olander E; vanStaden C: China Africa Project, 2016
The China Africa Project is a multimedia resource dedicated to exploring various aspects of China’s growing engagement with Africa. Through a combination of original content and curation of third-party material from across the Internet, the CAP’s objective is purely informational. The site states that none of the blog’s authors or producers have any vested interest in any Chinese or African position.
Wellbeing Economics and Buen Vivir: Development Alternatives for Inclusive Human Security
Ruttenberg T: Wellbeing Economics and Buen Vivir, XXVIII, 2013
As international development strategies struggle to address issues of human insecurity and socioeconomic inequality, inspiring alternatives are taking shape outside the traditional development discourse. The author argues that locating development strategies within the current neoliberal capitalist framework limits the possibility of success of development goals and strategies, largely designed by 'the North' and argued to be rarely successful in 'the South'. The author argues that these have potential to transform development policy in the South. This article discusses well-being economics, questioning the notion that high income and consumption constitutes genuine wealth, noting that income contributes up to the point of satisfying basic needs, after which human well-being is argued to rest on supporting the development of human potentialities through meaningful livelihoods, strengthening social relations and promoting ways of life in harmony with nature. She argues that this is being applied in the political philosophy of “buen vivir” (living well) in selected Latin American social movements and states to guide a development policy that is more inclusive of human security and their environments. The paper explores the manner in which the concept puts improvement of the quality of life, capacities and potential of the population and its harmonious coexistence with nature at the centre of the economic system, within constitutions, policies in selected countries and in relation to their impact.
Making Medicines in Africa: The Political Economy of Industrializing for Local Health
Mackintosh M; Banda G; Tibandebage P; Wamae W: Palgrave Connect Open Access International Political Economy Series, 2015
The importance of the pharmaceutical industry in Sub-Saharan Africa, its claim to policy priority, is rooted in the vast unmet health needs of the sub-continent. Making Medicines in Africa, an open access book under a CC-BY license, is a collective endeavour by a group of contributors with a strong African and more broadly Southern presence, to find ways to link technological development, investment and industrial growth in pharmaceuticals to improve access to essential good quality medicines, as part of moving towards universal access to competent health care in Africa. The authors aim to shift the emphasis in the international debate and initiatives towards sustained Africa-based and African-led initiatives to tackle this huge challenge. The authors argue that without the technological, industrial, intellectual, organisational and research-related capabilities associated with competent pharmaceutical production, and without policies that pull the industrial sectors towards serving local health needs, the African sub-continent cannot generate the resources to tackle its populations' needs and demands.
More than cooking stoves: need for an ambitious plan on air pollution
People’s Health Movement; Medicus Mundi International: 27 January 2016
In a statement People's Health Movement (PHM) and Medicus Mundi International (MMI) pointed out the weaknesses of the draft roadmap established by the WHO for an enhanced global response to the adverse health effects of air pollution. In it, they argue that this draft misses an analysis of the current economic and trade-related rules that would prevent the establishment of a robust plan of action. PHM and MMI see serious barriers for the transfer to clean technologies due to the continuing pressure for higher levels of intellectual property protection and investor state dispute settlements in trade agreements. PHM and MMI urge member states to insist on a more strategic and focused approach to the social and economic determinants of air pollution and to address these fundamental issues.
The environmental profile of a community’s health: a cross-sectional study on tobacco marketing in 16 countries
Savell E; Gilmore AB; Sims M; Mony PK; Koon T; et al: Bulletin of the World Health Organisation 93(12), 93:851-861G., December 2015
The objective of the study was to examine and compare tobacco marketing in 16 countries while the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control requires parties to implement a comprehensive ban on such marketing. Between 2009 and 2012, a kilometre-long walk was completed by trained investigators in 462 communities across 16 countries to collect data on tobacco marketing. The authors interviewed community members about their exposure to traditional and non-traditional marketing in the previous six months. To examine differences in marketing between urban and rural communities and between high-, middle- and low-income countries, the authors used multilevel regression models controlling for potential confounders. Compared with high-income countries, the number of tobacco advertisements observed was 81 times higher in low-income countries and the number of tobacco outlets was 2.5 times higher in both low- and lower-middle-income countries. Of the 11 842 interviewees, 1184 (10%) reported seeing at least five types of tobacco marketing. Self-reported exposure to at least one type of traditional marketing was 10 times higher in low-income countries than in high-income countries. For almost all measures, marketing exposure was significantly lower in the rural communities than in the urban communities. Despite global legislation to limit tobacco marketing, it appears ubiquitous. The frequency and type of tobacco marketing varies on the national level by income group and by community type, appearing to be greatest in low-income countries and urban communities.
The Least Developed Countries Report 2015: Transforming Rural Economies
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD): New York, November 2015
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Least Developed Countries (LDC’s) Report 2015 focuses on the transformation of rural economies. Assessing LDCs’ progress in agricultural productivity, the extent and nature of their rural economic diversification, and gender issues in rural transformation, it shows that agricultural productivity began to increase in LDCs in 2000, following decades of stagnation or decline, but has risen strongly only in Asian LDCs. The report also shows that rural economic diversification varies widely between LDCs, but only a few have passed beyond the stage in which non-farm activities are centred on agriculture, and that urban linkages are limited. Further, the report highlights that women comprise half the rural workforce in LDCs, but face serious constraints on realising their productive potential, slowing rural transformation. The 2030 Agenda both highlights the need and provides the opportunity for a new approach to rural development centred on poverty-oriented structural transformation (POST), to generate higher incomes backed by higher productivity. In rural areas, this means upgrading agriculture, developing viable non-farm activities, and fully exploiting the synergies between the two, through appropriately designed and sequenced efforts to achieve the SDGs. The Report argues that differentiation is needed between peri-urban, intermediate, remote and isolated rural areas and a key priority is to overcome the contradiction between need and opportunity, by which more remote areas and poorer households have the greatest need but also the most limited opportunities for income diversification. Gender-specific measures are needed to overcome disadvantages arising directly from gender norms, and more inclusive gender-sensitive approaches to address their poverty-related consequences. Access to appropriate technologies, inputs, skills and affordable finance needs to be fostered. Effective policy coordination is required nationally, while producers’ associations, cooperatives and women’s networks can play a key role locally. Innovative approaches to trade and cross-border investment could make a substantial contribution. Finally, the report highlights the importance of adequate support from the international community to achieve structural transformation and fulfil the SDGs, based on the principle that “to will the end is to will the means”.