Health Equity: 05/23/12

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

[EQ] Health Justice: An Argument From the Capabilities Approach

Book and Media Reviews | May 16, 2012
Health Justice: An Argument From the Capabilities Approach

Joseph J. Fins, Division of Medical Ethics, Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York
JAMA. May 16 2012;307(19):2106-2106. doi:10.1001/jama.2012.481

Website: http://bit.ly/JxmVhe

“…….Sridhar Venkatapuram's Health Justice provides a lucent account of the intersection of health policy and social justice and helps explains why it is unfair to saddle the poor with expectations that they may not be able to meet.
The issue is not simply the double standard of asking a poor person with diabetes and mental illness to be more adherent to a program than a Wall Street mogul who still smokes after vascular surgery. Venkatapuram makes the point that the unfairness stems from something else: the relationship between health and capabilities….”

“…..Venkatapuram, a Wellcome Trust Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Lecturer at Cambridge, argues that one cannot divorce health justice from a broader notion of fairness in society. Building on a distinguished lineage of scholarship from John Rawls, Michael Marmot, Martha Nussbaum, and Amartya Sen, Venkatapuram argues that the point is not fair and equal access to health. Instead, it is ensuring the support and social context necessary to have the capability of being healthy and pursuing a life plan…”

Sridhar Venkatapuram Cambridge, United Kingdom, Polity Press, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-5035-7………..

KMC/2012/KMC
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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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[EQ] Confronting Scarcity: Managing Water, Energy and Land for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

Confronting Scarcity:
Managing Water, Energy and Land for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

The 2011/2012 European Report on Development
Overseas Development Institute (ODI), European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), German Development Institute/Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (GDI/DIE).- European Union, 2012

Available online PDF [208p.] at: http://bit.ly/JUwqFd

“……Water, energy and land, three crucial resources for development and human well-being, are under increasing strain due to rising food prices, climate change, global population growth and economic growth. Today almost a billion people are undernourished, 0.9 billion have no safe water and 1.5 billion no source of electricity. Worse still, at current rates, by 2030 demand for energy and water will have grown by 40% – and by 50% for food.

As the threat of absolute resource scarcity looms closer, poor people are the most vulnerable and least equipped to cope. Inclusive and sustainable resource management is thus a developmental and environmental necessity – and a moral imperative, too….”

…..This Report focuses on water, energy and land. It examines the constraints on each, the interrelationships between them and then considers how they can be managed together to promote growth in developing countries that is both socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. A rising world population and global economic growth place new pressures on natural resources…..”

Thank you.

[EQ] Policy Making With Health Equity at Its Heart

Policy Making With Health Equity at Its Heart

Michael G. Marmot, UCL Institute of Health Equity, University College London
JAMA. May 16 - 2012;307(19):2033-2034. doi:10.1001/jama.2012.3534

Website: http://bit.ly/Lfz9pA

“…….In India, there is a cabinet minister for social justice. Would that it were catching, and spread to all government ministers. What a thought: social justice at the heart of all government policy. It would be a radical change from the current set of arrangements, in which many governments are unashamed apostles of self-interest—of their countries, of their partisan supporters or, indeed, of self-interest as a political creed. Given the link between social and economic policy and the health of populations, all ministers should see themselves as ministers of health. Putting these arguments—health and social justice—together implies that health equity should be at the heart of all policy making, national and global………..

Thank you.

[EQ] Understanding poverty and wellbeing: a note with implications for research and policy

Understanding poverty and wellbeing:
a note with implications for research and policy

ODI Research reports and studies, May 2012

Available online at: http://bit.ly/Jd5kVY

Poverty Analysis Discussion Group

Sabina Alkire (University of Oxford/OPHI), Jo Boyden (University of Oxford and Director of Young Lives), John Hammock (OPHI), David Hulme (University of Manchester), Clare Melamed (ODI), Allister McGregor (IDS), Diana Mitlin (IIED), Andrew Norton (ODI), Andrew Shepherd (ODI), Frances Stewart (University of Oxford), Andy Sumner (IDS), Gaston Yalonetzky (University of Oxford/OPHI)

“……..This note takes stock of poverty research to date, proposes a set of ‘building blocks’ or lessons learnt in terms of poverty policy analysis and research, and identifies challenges and future directions for research

The note is intended to contribute to policy debates relating to the assessment of poverty and wellbeing (such as the question of what framework of goals and measures might replace the UN Millennium Development Goals beyond 2015) as well as consideration of future directions for poverty research.

This note recognises that the last decade has seen great progress in some dimensions of poverty reduction (notably in terms of improved human development indicators in most non-conflict affected countries, and great reductions in income poverty in East Asia). However, a better understanding of how poverty should be assessed is important to ensure continued progress in the eradication of absolute poverty and reduction of disparities in the next ten years…..”

KMC/2012/SDE
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