Joint Action and Learning Initiative
if still too slowly, and now under new economic pressures. The right to health is increasingly mo- tivating not only civil society, but also govern- ments. The Pan American Health Organization passed a resolution on health and human rights, and the UN General Assembly explicitly recog- nized the right to clean water and sanitation. The United States no longer opposes UN resolutions on the right to health. Universal coverage, primary health care, and socioeconomic determinants are receiving renewed focus. Global health remains prominent on the international agenda, evidenced by the attention to global health and foreign policy and the September 2011 UN high-level summit on non-communicable diseases.
In January 2011, WHO’s Executive Board called on the Organization to assume a more “active and effective role” in “directing and coordinating” in- ternational health activities. The agency initiated a reform process to strengthen its “central role in global health governance.”8
JALI supports WHO 28
leadership, but also governance reforms extend- ing beyond WHO, and even beyond the health sector, to deeper addressing forms of injustice adversely affecting health and development.
Meanwhile, momentum towards a Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) is growing. In March 2011, one of JALI’s founding partners, SECTION27, a leading South African public inter- est group that uses the law to protect, promote, and advance socio-economic rights, convened a regional civil society consultation on the right to health in Johannesburg. That was followed in May in New Delhi by a global consultation on global governance for health, hosted by Medico Inter- national and a network of organizations in India. At both consultations, stakeholders formally en- dorsed the imperative of exploring an FCGH.
An FCGH can only succeed in conjunction with a social movement for the right to health and with the broad support of civil society, especially in the South. Thus, the affirmation that the FCGH reso-
nates with some critical organizations and indi- viduals represents an important step forward for JALI—even as the Johannesburg and New Delhi consultations are only early efforts to discuss and debate the idea of an FCGH.
Extensive partnerships will also be necessary as JALI begins to guide a research process to an- swer outstanding questions required to develop an FCGH. What are people’s expectations from their health services? What forms of account- ability and enforcement could ensure effective implementation of an FCGH? How might the international community effectively support the health rights of people whose own governments fail to meet their responsibilities? What are ap- propriate targets and benchmarks for progress? What funding will be required, and from whom? How to adequately integrate a gender-perspective throughout the FCGH, and ensure that it address- es needs particular to vulnerable and marginalized populations? And the list goes on.
Interest in a Framework Convention extends from civil society and academia to the pinnacle of inter- national institutions. In March, the UN Secretary- General endorsed a Framework Convention on Global Health, writing: “Let the AIDS response be a beacon of global solidarity for health as a hu- man right and set the stage for a future United Nations framework convention on global health.” And WHO’s Director-General has suggested that a multi-stakeholder forum for global health might consider “a charter that begins to define the rules of engagement in global health.”
We invite readers to join JALI (
http://www.section27.
org.za/2010/11/23/jali) to develop widely shared un- derstandings of national and global responsibili- ties for health to inform post-MDG commitments and create an innovative global agreement. It is time to define—and to meet—these responsibili- ties, and to take a giant step towards transform- ing a world of gaping health inequalities into one of social justice and global health equity.
. ILSA Quarterly » volume 20 » issue 1 » October 2011
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