People's Health Movement 2002: Issues ------------------------------------- THE PEOPLE'S HEALTH MOVEMENT (PHM): TIME TO TAKE STOCK (RE-VISIONING THE GLOBAL HEALTH CRISIS: THE PHM's POSITION IN 2002) 1. The People's Charter for Health (PCH), The PHM's manifesto, is one and a half years old. It has been disseminated quite widely world- wide. 2. The world has moved on since. But, clearly, for the worse in al- most all fronts the PHM has strong feelings about. Most worrisome is the fact that most of the world's shifts for the worse have become so depressingly predictable, and nobody seems to be succeeding in doing much about them. 3. The PCH's 'Call for Action' predicted much of what we are witness- ing; we were "on the dot". So, to continue to be "on the dot", we simply have to reassess where we are and what we have, and have not, achieved. Just to make yet further predictions of doom would be to utterly fail all that and those we stand for. 4. The claims on various duty bearers made in the People's Charter for Health have, in all honesty, mostly not been heard or headed, and much less fulfilled. There have been advances, yes. But not so many we can call our own little victories. 5. Our activism has not been commensurate to the fast changes we are all witnessing in the world, i.e. tougher times call for more commit- ment, more militancy and, above all, more intensive networking and coordinated local and global action. 6. Much more action is needed both locally AND globally; it is not either or: it is both. Succeeding in mobilizing local communities is simply not enough; in the end, global events tend to supercede the many local victories we are having. 7. Does this mean we deserve what we are getting? Or, is our Charter too ambitious? The answer is two times NO. The PCH is a long-term platform of what principles we strive for. But to strive, we have to start acting. And the PCH does call for very concrete actions. But a call is just that; somebody has to respond to it. There just are no miracles; we have to make them happen... Nothing is given to our cause; we have to fight for it. 8. It all boils down to power relations. For us, power comes from creating greater clarity about the problems and issues of our times, clarity about their structural causes and how they affect health, plus clarity about the best courses of ACTION to follow to remove the major barriers and determinants of negative outcomes. Power also cru- cially comes from coalescing into a veritable global movement. 9. pha-exchange@kabissa.org, the PHM's list-server, now serving close to 600 individuals and organizations, has started to open a forum for global discussion and education; it needs more contributions from more members. 10. The PHM's website has been up two years now; it needs more dy- namic updates and also more contributions. 11. If, as a global movement, we want to really be what we call our- selves --as tough as it may be-- we all have to stay reasonably up to date and provide people's outlooks on and progressive analyses of what is happening (both in general and in health), plus giving some guidance for concerted action. On key issues, the list-server should thus spill into the website, i.e. the website has to become the re- pository of our collective thought and our concrete calls for action. 12. This is why PHM is now organizing itself in 'action circles' -- small groups collectively working on specific topics, mostly through email. These groups are starting to give direction to our actions, actions rooted in equity/human rights/sustainable development-based analyses applied mostly to the most urgent global health issues. These circles have to and will multiply from now on. 13. As regards the PCH's many 'Calls for Action' --all pointing at blocking or reversing negative, and promoting positive determinants of health-- all of them are still very much current. As a reminder, these are calls for specific actions made in the areas of: * health as a human right (and not only the right to health), * the economic, social, political and environmental challenges to health, * war, violence, conflict and natural disasters, * a comprehensive, more democratic PHC with adequate resources and greater accountability, * greater people's empowerment and their greater participation, and * stronger local people's organization and a strong global movement. 14. The specific actions proposed in the PCH under each of these headings are not to be seen as the content for a collection of fit- ting slogans or as a wish-list. Eventually, the PHM will have one or more action circles addressing each of these areas and these circles will network with other groups already working on each of these is- sues. 15. But for this to happen, more of each of you need to get involved. It is, therefore, not sufficient for this short document to reassess where the People's Health Movement stands in 2002. Each of its mem- bers needs to re-commit her/himself: We need more of your time! Per- haps the moment has come to abandon some of the irrelevant work we all get involved in. We can no longer afford missing the forest by focusing on the trees... 16. Furthermore, we are sure that --world events going the way they are-- our potential PHM constituency has grown out there (!). More people oppose what is happening. People are more anxious than before to be counted-in in actions that will do something to reverse current trends. PHM will reach out to these new strategic allies. We can of- fer a global and working organization --with clear, explicit rallying points and principles (found in the PCH)-- that is engaged in provid- ing a sustained and coherent set of proposed people-centered actions adapted to existing and emerging situations. These actions may still be small and scattered, but they are additive. 17. The People's Health Movement can and has taken up the historical challenge to be such a network. 18. Yes, the world has become more complicated in just 18 months since our PHA2000 in Bangladesh. And it is heading to greater uncer- tainties, all negatively impinging on the health of the poorest among us. But our challenge is still the same --though more urgent-- and still calls for the main actions and demands called for by our flag- ship document, the People's Charter for Health. 19. We particularly call on delegates to and participants in this year's WHA to join our Movement --regardless of your official or non- official status. To start with, you can visit, our website at http://www.phm2002.org, contact our Secretariat at <gksavar@citechco.net> and join the pha- exchange list-server by writing to its moderator at <aviva@netnam.vn> -- Claudio Schuftan Hanoi, Vietnam mailto:aviva@netnam.vn -- To send a message to AFRO-NETS, write to: afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org in the body of the message type: subscribe afro-nets OR unsubscribe afro-nets To contact a person, send a message to: afro-nets-help@usa.healthnet.org Information and archives: http://www.afronets.org