The World Trade Organization’s 2009 Global Monitoring Report notes that the deepening global recession, rising unemployment, and volatile commodity prices in 2008 and 2009 are seriously affecting progress toward poverty reduction. The recent food crisis has thrown millions into extreme poverty. Deteriorating growth prospects in developing countries will further slow the pace of poverty reduction. Recovery prospects depend on effective policies that restore confidence in the financial system and counter falling global demand. While the responsibility for restoring global growth lies largely with rich countries, emerging and developing countries have a key role to play in improving the growth outlook, maintaining macroeconomic stability, and strengthening the international financial system. Financing the health sector may be negatively impacted by the recession.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Is there a link between the financial crisis dominating the front pages of newspapers and the health stories on the inside? The Commission on Social Determinants of Health certainly believed so. Its starting point was that the economic and social features of society are closely linked to the distribution of health within and between countries. The social determinants of health are the conditions of daily life and its structural drivers will be influenced by the financial crisis. As social determinants are affected by the financial crunch, so will health outcomes be affected as well.
This paper is an unprecedented collaboration between a wide spectrum of civil society organisations in the United Kingdom (UK). the civil society organisations in the UK called on the UK government to initiate an economic system that that seeks to work for people and for the planet. The civil society statement makes recommendations to world leaders to chart a path out of recession in a way that builds an equitable global economy. It prioritises tax reforms to end poverty, accountable and transparent processes for the international finance system and calls for reforms to be implemented through the United Nations in consultation with governments, trade unions and civil society organisations.
The auhtor argues that there are several issues that the G20 Summit failed to resolve, besides the biggest omission – failure to reform IMF policies. First, it failed to produce anything tangible on a coordinated fiscal stimulus policy. Secondly, it did not come up with a plan of action to clean up the crisis-hit banking systems. Thirdly, there was no plan for regulating cross-border activities of financial institutions or cross-border financial flows, nor an acknowledgement that a framework should be created that facilitates developing countries’ ability to regulate the flow of cross-border funds. Fourthly, there was no move to assist developing countries to avoid wrenching debt crises. Without this, they would be deprived of the kinds of schemes by which banks or companies in trouble pay back only a portion of their loans whose market values would have fallen.
This compilation consists of short essays from a broad range of experts to provide proposals on immediate trade priorities in the context of the economic crisis and provide a forward-looking agenda for global trade governance. The essays focus special attention on the needs of developing countries and sustainable development considerations. Some conclusions drawn from the compilation include the recommendation to establish a working group of experts to propose WTO reforms. Immediate action should be taken to implement those areas of the Doha Development Agenda where agreement exists. The World Trade Organisation's capacity needs to be expanded and a trade-and-development ombudsman should be appointed at the WTO to whom third-party complaints about trade impacts can be brought.
The draft G20 Communiqué recognises explicitly in its opening paragraph, that 'a global crisis requires a global solution'. But at no point does it recognise any need for a global process to decide what that global solution should be. The G20 members appear determined that they, and they alone, should determine the future course of the global economy – and that it should be designed to protect their financial interests, with only token efforts to limit the damage to the rest of the world. They are trying to seize control of the global economy but, in doing so, the author argues that they are amply demonstrating why they must not be allowed to succeed.
The author argues for a new financial system that is transparent and accountable to all. The G20's task is to expose all that has gone wrong, including the role the African leaders have played in the crisis, through the externalisation of billions of pounds intended for the development of their countries. These activities, Nabudere notes, have helped position Africa as a net creditor to the world, with the external assets of 40 African countries outstripping their external liabilities over the period from 1970–2004. In other words, he says, despite the widely held view that Africa was 'decoupled' from the global economy, African leaders have contributed to the activities of ‘shadow banks’ being used to create ‘toxic debt’, their wealth contributing to the global economic turmoil.
In this policy brief, the author argues that the world Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) development agenda is a valuable opportunity to place the notion of the 'public domain' at the centre of the intellectual property debate. In this regard, she proposes the creation of an international register for public domain matters that countries, particularly developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs), should be able to rely on in order to boost their local innovation and creativity. The author recommends that governments and other stakeholders preserve the public domain and support norm-setting processes that promote a robust public domain, initiate discussions on how to further facilitate access to knowledge for developing countries and LDCs in order to foster creativity and innovation, and establish a forum for exchange of experiences on open collaborative projects such as the Human Genome Project.
Oxfam International, Health Action International (HAI) and Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) have voiced their alarm over recent seizures by the Dutch government of shipments of legitimate generic pharmaceuticals passing through Europe on their way to developing countries. The recent seizure of legitimate generic antiretroviral medicines in transit from India to Nigeria by Dutch customs authorities could lead to HIV-positive Nigerian patients missing critical treatment. They have called on the European Union to review and modify its regulations on counterfeiting that are prompting the seizures. They also urged the EU to reconsider inclusion of its regulation in regional free trade agreement negotiations. If it does not, ‘this could prove disastrous for access to medicines in some regions,’ they said.
Developing nations, led by Brazil and India, continue to press strong concern over seizures of legitimate shipments of generic pharmaceuticals destined for poor patients in the developing world. Brazilian Ambassador to the WTO, Roberto Azevêdo, told reporters that flexibilities developing countries have under WTO rules on intellectual property rights may be ‘jeopardised’ and that the possibility of a dispute settlement case was not ruled out. He said that as many as a dozen developing countries made statements in support of the concerns, and two of those countries spoke on behalf of the African Group and the Least Developed Countries group, each of which have dozens of members. However, the European Union denies any conflict with WTO rules in its efforts to catch shipments of counterfeits.