Health Equity: 08/18/10

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

[EQ] The Copernican Shift in Global Health

The Copernican Shift in Global Health

Santiago Alcázar

Global Health Programme Working Paper N° 3

The Graduate Institute, Geneva - Global Health Programme

Geneva – Switzerland

Available online PDF [15p.] at: http://bit.ly/acGcGu

“…..The author argues in this paper that the current economy- and trade-centred world is shifting towards a more health-centred world. He draws parallels with the radical mind shift provoked by Nicolaus Copernicus in putting the sun at centre stage, which had unforeseen impact in areas unconnected to astronomy.

Despite the fact that economy and trade remain central to foreign policy, the social cluster has gained growing influence and importance. The 13th International AIDS Conference, held in Durban in 2000, laid the foundations for incorporating health into foreign policy. As a result, the link between human rights and access to medicines was established.

This had an impact on trade negotiations. The Ministerial Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health (the Doha Declaration) states that nothing in the TRIPS Agreement should prevent members of the World Trade Organization from taking measures to protect public health.

The author analyses this Copernican shift in the diplomatic arena from trade to health, and highlights the important role played by Brazil in these developments, which resulted in the Millennium Declaration, the Doha Declaration and the Oslo Declaration giving health precedence over trade….’

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[EQ] Addressing global health governance challenges through a new mechanism: the proposal for a Committee C of the World Health Assembly

Addressing global health governance challenges through a new mechanism:
the proposal for a Committee C of the World Health Assembly

Ilona Kickbusch, Wolfgang Hein, Gaudenz Silberschmidt

forthcoming in Special issue of the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics on global health governance, 2010

Committee C JLME 2010 Final Draft Feb 2010

Available online PDF [32p.] at: http://bit.ly/cAVW8f

“…………There has been much discussion about improving global health governance and even calls for a new global health architecture2. Some authors continue to see WHO in the center of such a new configuration, others see it as one organization amongst many others and some consider it outdated. But the role of the organisation can only be determined if there is greater clarity about the various domains of global health and its role in relation to them.

One problem is that in debating the need for better governance and coordination in global health many analysts focus exclusively on one part of the global health governance picture: the complex landscape of health in development. It is in this arena of global health that the actors have increased exponentially and visibly – disease by disease - over the last twenty years and it is here that many new governance mechanisms and institutions were developed.

The explosion of actors and activities in this domain of global health is due in particular to a widening resource base for mainly vertical health activities. Funding for global health initiatives has quadrupled in less than two decades to almost $22 billion, boosted in particular by United States public funding (PEPFAR), corporate donations and giving from private foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation3.

But the realm of global health governance is much broader. Governance according to Krasner4 includes “implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision making procedures” according to which the international actors operate.

Today these clearly emerge in a more complex manner than when the World Health Organization was the only health game in town. As the environment gets more complex a new need for coherence and coordination in global health governance is recognized5. In the crowded landscape this is clearly an empty space - a governance void - which WHO should fill. WHO’s responsibilities lie exactly – in concordance with its constitution - in the establishment of principles, norms and rules according to which the wide range of global health actors should shape their actions, be they member states, donors, foundations or private public partnerships.

The critical difference at the beginning of the 21st century lies in the decision making procedures of how these principles, norms and rules are developed. They call not only for the involvement of the broad range of global health actors but also for increased transparency and accountability

Three strategic pathways emerge for the organization, all of which imply a new relationship with member states, with other international bodies and organisations, with civil society and with the private sector:…………….”

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[EQ] A review of international migration policies

A review of international migration policies

Working Paper

Narada Luckanachai and Matthias Rieger
Programme for the Study of Global Migration, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva

International Labour Organization (International Institute for Labour Studies) 2010.

Available online PDF [52p.] at: http://bit.ly/9zVbHJ

“…..As flows of migrants from developing countries to developed countries grow over time, migration has become an important issue that warrant good management. This paper reviews migration policies that exist in various countries and, especially those that could be applicable to North and West African countries.
The paper is divided into 6 main sections as follows:

Outward Migration This section examines policies on skilled and low-skilled outward migration. For skilled migration, the policy aim is to reduce brain drain in the healthcare sector through measures such as better compensation schemes, bonding, and private initiatives. For low skilled migration, the policy focus is on reducing migration costs through proper preparation and recruitment process as well as better social protection for migrants.

Inward Migration This section discusses four aspects of inward migration: labour market need, social protection, social cohesion, and development. Destination countries have implement measures that meet skill shortage without admitting excess migrant labour, provide migrants with accessible and portable social benefits, prevent discrimination against migrants, and promote development of origin countries to reduce inward migration.

Transit Migration This section explores externalization and regularization policies and types of social assistance available to transit migrants such as transit centres, housing, and healthcare.

Return This section reviews policies that encourage migrants to return to their home countries. These include diaspora networks, funding and assistance for academics and entrepreneurs, and return programs in destination countries.

Remittances This section investigates existing mechanisms that could be used to increase remittances and promote their investment, reduce transfer cost, and encourage formal channel of remittances. Securitization and regulation of remittances are also mentioned.

Rural-Urban Migration This section reviews policies on rural development that could potentially reduce migration from rural to urban areas, and policies on urban infrastructure development to support growing demand for infrastructure in the cities.

Whenever possible, the paper tries to identify best practices and provide assessments of the performance of migration policies. However, some policy evaluations are based on extremely incomplete data. Therefore, readers are advised to use their judgements when reading through segments on policy assessments….”

Table of contents

I. Introduction

II. Outward migration

A. Theory

B. Skilled migration

C. Low-skilled migration

III. Inward migration

A. Labour market needs

B. Social protection

C. Social cohesion

D. Development

IV. Transit migration

A. Theory

B. Externalization policies

C. Transit centres

D. Regularization policies

E. Housing

F. Healthcare

V. Return

A. Diaspora networks

B. Return of academics

C. Return of entrepreneurs

D. Return programs in destination countries

VI. Remittances

A. Increase and invest remittances

B. Reduce transfer cost

C. Encourage formal channel of remittances

D. Other issues

VII. Rural urban migration

A. Rural Development

B. Urban infrastructure development

VIII. Conclusion

Bibliographie .

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