Friday, March 23, 2012

[EQ] Road Safety and Public Transportation towards Sustainable Development

SDE seminar series towards Rio+20  - Eight Seminar
Sustainable Development and Environmental Health – SDE - PAHO/WHO

Road Safety and Public Transportation towards Sustainable Development:
an agenda for health for Rio+20

World report on road traffic injury preventionWHO PDF [244p.] at:  http://bit.ly/GJRGOr

28 March 2012in English with simultaneous translation to Spanish


Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm - Eastern Standard Time (Washington DC USA)

To check local time in WDC against your time zone, see the World Clock

Website PAHO/WHO Rio+20 at: http://bit.ly/oxoRdS

“……In the Americas, traffic injuries are the leading cause of death in children aged 5 to 14, and the second leading cause of death in the group aged 15 to 44. In addition to the suffering that traffic injuries and deaths cause to victims and their families, these injuries place an excessive burden on the health services and generate a high cost for society as a whole. In the United Sates, costs related to traffic injuries were in excess of US$ 99 billion in 2005.

In that same year in Brazil, another study found that the cost of traffic injuries was $10 billion per year, equivalent to 1.2% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). In Belize, a study with data from 2007 estimates a total economic cost of $11 million, representing 0.9% of GDP.

“Road safety” is an appropriate and effective instrument for preventing these injuries, and ministries of health, in coordination with other sectors, have the responsibility of steering policies to meet the goals of preventing and controlling harm to health.

This seminar will address road safety in a perspective of social determinants of health and also will discuss how important it is to improve mass transit policies through the adoption of the principles of safety, equity, and accessibility to promote the exercise of human rights.

The health sector should promote intersectoral collaboration for the creation of mass transit systems to help diminish the use of individual motor vehicle transportation and encourage the use of safer, cleaner modes of transportation to reduce exposure to the risk of road traffic injuries, respiratory diseases caused by greenhouse gas emissions, mental health, and chronic non-communicable diseases, given the proven benefits of public transportation in terms of increasing the physical activity of the population…

Agenda:

12:00    Welcome and introduction:  Eugênia Rodrigues, Regional Advisor, Road Safety, PAHO/WHO.

12:05    Health Sector Contribution to Road Safety Promotion:  Philippe Lamy, PAHO/WHO Representative Mexico.

12:15    Road Safety, Public Transportation and Health:  Andrés Villaveces, Behavioral and Social sciences Researcher, Health and Infrastructure Safety and Environment Unit. RAND Corporation   

12:25    Transportation at a Crossroads: Intersecting with Health and Equity: Eloisa Raynault, Transportation, Health and Equity Program Manager, American Public Health Association.

12:35 – Comments:  Claudia Adriazola, Public Health Partner and Manager of Transportation, EMBARQ.

12:45 – Questions and Answers

1:00   - Closure

Moderator: Eugênia Rodrigues, Regional Advisor, Road Safety, PAHO/WHO website http://bit.ly/GSzhxA

How to participate:

In person:
PAHO/WHO
525 23rd ST NW Washington DC, 20037
Room 812 – 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm Eastern Time (WDC)

Online: via Elluminate link:

- Spanish room: www.paho.org/virtual/SeminariosSDE 

- English room www.paho.org/virtual/SDESeminars

SDE Seminar Series towards Rio+20

"Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development.
They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature" - Principle 1 of the Rio…..”
Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992.

The Rio Declaration of 1992 recognizes that healthy populations are central to human progress and sustainable development, and remains equally true today. However, the economic pillar has been prioritized at the expense of the social and environmental pillars of sustainable development over the last few decades, becoming itself a source of volatility and destabilization.

The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20, now offers an opportunity to re-examine the relationship between health and sustainable development. The proposed SDE Seminar series towards Rio+20 aim at contributing to this important debate by bringing different themes of relevance to sustainable development and health to inform all areas of the Pan American Organization about the themes under discussion in the Rio Conference, but also to inform public health stakeholders and other decision makers in the health sector, to better take part in the debate.

The SDE Seminar series will happen every Wednesday   from 12 to 1pm (Washington time), from February 8 to June 13th.

All Seminars will be life-streamed, and opened for participation in person at the PAHO/WHO HQ, or via Elluminate, or via telephone line.
Some of the Seminars will be in English, others in Spanish.

For those who cannot follow the seminar alive, they will be available later at PAHO Rio+20 Toolkit at: http://bit.ly/oxoRdS

 

KMC/2012/HSD
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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ KMC Area]
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“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
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[EQ] Ethical and Economic Perspectives on Global Health Interventions

Ethical and Economic Perspectives on Global Health Interventions

 

Sonia Bhalotra, University of Bristol and IZA; Thomas Pogge, Yale University
The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) – Bonn Germany

IZA Policy Paper No. 38 March 2012

Available online at: http://bit.ly/GKCZDR


“……Interventions that improve childhood health directly improve the quality of life and, in addition, have multiplier effects, producing sustained population and economic gains in poor countries. We suggest how contemporary global institutions shaping the development, pricing and distribution of vaccines and drugs may be modified to deliver large improvements in health.


“…..To support a justice argument for such modification, we show how the current global economic order may contribute to perpetuating poverty and poor health in less-developed countries…..”

 

“….Our approach is conditioned by three factors:
First, the global burden of disease is largely borne by poor countries.
Second, within poor countries, it is largely borne by children.
Third, poverty heightens the risk of contracting disease and childhood exposure to disease causes poverty in later life and, plausibly, into the next generation.

 

The first factor may suggest that improving global health is essentially the duty of poor-country governments, but we present ethical and economic arguments against this view.

The second and third factors suggest that health interventions may be self-financing and self-sustaining within the span of a generation and, overall, not only intrinsically desirable but also cost-effective. However, commitment problems arise in achieving international coordination of interventions and these are enhanced by the fact that some costs of inaction flow in an intergenerational frame (familiar from debates about climate change). This motivates consideration of global institutional reforms focused on alleviating disease burdens borne by children and especially by girls.

 

We suggest how contemporary global institutions shaping the development, pricing and distribution of vaccines and drugs may be modified to deliver large improvements in health. We show how interventions that improve childhood health directly improve the quality of life and, in addition, have multiplier effects, producing long-term population and economic gains in poor countries…..”

 

KMC/2012/HSS
Twitter http://twitter.com/eqpaho

 *      *     *
This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues.  [DD/ KMC Area]
Washington DC USA

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PAHO/WHO Website
Equity List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html
Twitter http://twitter.com/eqpaho

 



IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended
recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or
confidential information. If you are not the intended
recipient or a person responsible for delivering this
transmission to the intended recipient, you may not
disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take
any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission
in error, please dispose of and delete this transmission.

Thank you.