PHM Africa Learning Space

October blog Claudio Schuftan At the two-thirds point between 2000 and 2015, at a summit at UN headquarters in New York, the United Nations has just completed its assessment and review of the Millennium Development Goals. The Lancet has taken this opportunity to publish an appraisal of the MDGs, now and for the future, prepared by a distinguished group of London-based academics (1). The latter is critical of what it sees as the somewhat slow progress that has been made towards the achievement of the Goals, and also to some extent is critical of the Goals themselves. We, at the Peoples’ Health Movement, have been for long saying that the MDGs, and the thinking behind them, are problematic. While this month’s column is by me, it also expresses the considered views of the PHM which, I believe, has more than any other organisation earned the right to speak for the people who a

I would like to think that you often ask yourself – as I do – what all of us could do better to achieve greater justice, given that most of us work in or with countries with appalling social inequities. Allow me to share with you some of my thoughts on this. I see our role as helping put in place social processes and mechanisms that will drive sustainable human rights-based policies and practices in health and nutrition. These need to be part of how we help to instill a new will and commitment in decision-makers to change underlying preventable structural inequities in society. We can come to this from an ethical motivation, or else from a political motivation. Both stances drive us to become more involved in lessening inequities. They should both propose, not packages of universal solutions, but paths to follow to get things that need to be done done, specifiying by whom, with whom, and against whom. Living as we do in a mean, unfair and selfish world, I believe we need t

Highlights of the WSF March

The People's Health Movement represented by more than 20 countries joined the rest of the world in the opening march of the World Social Forum on the 6th of February in Dakar Senegal. See the attached photos on the highlights of the march

Dear Friends The IPHU has started off well in Dakar Senegal. Day one had a presentation on the People's Health Movement which included how the movement started in 2000 at the first People's Health Assembly, the various PHM programmes which include the Right to Health Campaign, the Global Health Watch, International People's Health University and the People's Health Assembly. We also had a presentation on the People's Charter for Health which was first developed at the first PHA as part of the preparations and during the assembly. The charter takes a political position and calls for action: defining Health as a Human Right gives an analysis of global health mentions that resources for achieving health were available but people's right to health were denied by governments and institutions it represents the voices of people and their demands The charter is a tool for advocacy and calls for action as it summarises the failure to achieve Health for All and