This paper argues that the dollar-a-day poverty is pervasive and persistent in most Least Developed Countries because they are caught in an international poverty trap. It highlights the fact that poverty is perpetuated by vicious domestic circles through which the high incidence and severity of poverty constrain national economic growth, and that the current form of globalisation is tightening rather than loosening the international poverty trap. In response to this, the author states that policies underlying international development cooperation, focusing on Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) have not changed sufficiently to enable countries to escape the trap and realise the opportunity for fast poverty reduction through economic growth.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
The Monterrey Consensus recognises the strong links between trade, finance and development issues. The challenge is to make trade, trade policy and trade rules work for development. This is a big challenge because many trade rules, for example in the WTO, and many trade policies, for example in structural adjustment conditionalities, are not yet aligned with development needs in the South, says a discussion paper submitted by the Third World Network to an informal meeting on financing for development.
Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR) has said the glaring failure revealed in the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) report on Zambia justifies the call for more investment in the social sector. Commenting on the contents of the MDG report that was released recently, CSPR assistant co-ordinator Gregory Chikwanka said the report's revelations heralded the need for the government to revisit the resource allocation procedures. The report states that of the 10 MDG targets, Zambia could probably achieve one while possessing the potential to achieve only six others.
Poor countries that fought to be able to import generic prescription drugs have failed to use changes to the WTO rules on intellectual property rights, reviving a row over who is to blame for the lack of treatment for millions of AIDS sufferers, reported Agence France Presse in March. According to Daniela Bagozzi, spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation in Geneva, "nothing much has changed since August," when a compromise between the 146 members of the WTO broke an eight-month deadlock over the changes. "From what we know and what we've heard, no country has issued a demand for a compulsory license as authorized within the agreement," she said.
This paper argues that the government of the United States is contravening its commitment under the "Doha Declaration" of 2001by using technical assistance, bilateral and regional trade agreements, and the threat of trade sanctions to ratchet up patent protection in developing countries. The paper states that the U.S. is pressuring developing countries to implement patent laws which go beyond TRIPS obligations and do not take advantage of its public-health safeguards in order to benefit the influential U.S. pharmaceutical industry.
In May 2003, at its annual World Health Assembly, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced a modest proposal: that it would provide the technical and organisational support to provide 3 million people in poor countries with antiretroviral treatment by the year 2005. This "3-by-5 initiative" was minor in one sense, in that it would provide treatment to only about 5 percent of those in need. But in another sense, it was a major step forward, particularly because the WHO proposed a novel manner of delivering the anti-HIV medicines: combining the drugs into a "fixed-dose regimen", a combination pill containing three drugs in one capsule, allowing an infected person to take only one pill twice per day for a complete HIV-treatment regimen. Fixed-dose combinations are cheaper and easier to take than the existing HIV treatment protocol; taking two fixed-dose combination pills a day for a year costs $140 per patient, compared to about $600 per year for the normal regimen of six pills per day.
MSF is concerned that further proliferation of so-called 'TRIPS plus' provisions in free trade agreeements negotiated by the United States may jeopardise the progress that has been made on access to medicines. This may have enormous consequences for the health and life of millions of people, says MSF, and this is particularly so given the deadline of 1st January 2005 after which pharmaceutical product patent protection has to be provided by all non-Least Developing Country Members. MSF says in a letter to EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy that the adequate protection of public health demands that WTO Members be permitted to give full effect to the letter and spirit of the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health (“Doha Declaration”) in their domestic and/or regional legislation.
The authors explore the economics of health and development, arguing that new evidence coupled with a wider perspective suggest sizable economic returns to better health. Drawing on studies of human welfare, they say that past estimates of economic progress have been understated and that recent economic losses caused by HIV/AIDS are likewise being understated if economists rely on GDP per capita as a yardstick. A better indicator is "full income"- an assessment of economic welfare that captures both the value of changes in life expectancy and income as measured in national accounts. For Africa, they say, this new yardstick "signals catastrophe ahead".
The agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) introduced intellectual property rules into the multilateral trading system for the first time, with profound consequences for developing countries. But the high cost of AIDS treatments has injected an ethical element into the TRIPS debate, posing new problems for the pharmaceuticals industry.
This paper argues that the government of the United States is contravening its commitment under the "Doha Declaration" of 2001by using technical assistance, bilateral and regional trade agreements, and the threat of trade sanctions to ratchet up patent protection in developing countries. The paper states that the U.S. is pressuring developing countries to implement patent laws which go beyond TRIPS obligations and do not take advantage of its public-health safeguards in order to benefit the influential U.S. pharmaceutical industry.