Global Health Watch 2

Global Health Watch is a collaboration of leading popular movements and nongovernmental organizations comprising civil society activists, community groups, health workers and academics. It has compiled this alternative world health report - a hard-hitting, evidence-based analysis of the political economy of health and health care - as a challenge to the major global bodies that influence health. Its monitoring of institutions including the World Bank, the World Health Organization and UNICEF reveals that while some important initiatives are being taken, much more needs to be done to have any hope of meeting the UN's health-related Millennium Development Goals.

• IntroductionA. An alternative paradigm for developmentB. The health-care sectorB1. Health systems advocacy B2. Mental Health: Culture, Language and Power B3. Access to healthcare for migrants and asylum seekers B4. Prisoners B5. MedicineC. Beyond health careC1. Carbon Trading and Climate Change C2. Terror, war and health C3. Reflections on globalization, trade, food and health C4. Urbanisation C5. The Sanitation and Water Crisis C6. Oil extraction and health in the Niger Delta C7. Humanitarian aid C8. EducationD. WatchingD1. Global Health Governance D1.1 Global health landscape D1.2 The World Health Organization and the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health D1.3 The Gates Foundation D1.4 The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria D1.5 The World Bank D2. Government aid D2.1 US foreign assistance and health D2.2 Canadian and Australian health aid 2.3 Security and health D3. Transnational corporations D3.1 Protecting Breastfeeding D3.2 Tobacco control: moving governments from inaction to actionE. Postscript: Resistance

'Ambitious, daring and foresighted, everyone should read GHW2. This is a brave report, and everyone will take something from it' Gill Walt, LSHTM 'Excellent ... I highly recommend this treasure trove, which is full of food for thought, to scholars and health workers alike' Maria Isabel Rodriguez, University of El Salvador 'We shall require many more social innovations, like the People Health Charter, the People Health Movement and the Global Health Watch, if mankind is to survive.' Suwit Wibulpolprasert, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand 'An extremely important intervention in the debate on global health policies ...sets a new standard for international reports into global social, economic and political issues. All those interested in such critical international issues will find GHW2 essential reading...an important and unique document.' Don Robotham, City University of New York 'An important contribution to understand the overwhelming health problems and their relation to the globalised oppressive world economy' Asa Cristina Laurell, former Secretary of Health of Mexico City and Secretary of Health of the Legitimate Government of Mexico. 'This edition explicitly builds upon its predecessor so that the two volumes can be used together ...this book makes a compelling and coherent case' Vic Neufeld, Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research 'An incisive socio-political critique of contemporary global health issues which focuses on determinants rather than diseases, enables the reader to unravel the complexity of global economic governance of health, and helps us understand why appalling health inequities persist across and within nations - a must-read for anyone involved or interested in public health.' K. Srinath Reddy, Public Health Foundation of India Praise for the first edition: 'A very good reference for people working in areas affecting the health of populations. It deals with some of the most important issues in today's world. I highly recommend it.' Vicente Navarro,International Journal of Health Services 'Combines academic analysis with a call to mobilize the health professional community to press for improvements in global health and justice. I hope it will be read by many health professionals in rich and poor countries alike.' Andy Haines, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 'It is very good to see issues of trade and globalization reflected prominently in a report aimed at health professionals. Global Health Watch provides them with a resource to engage in debates about these non-clinical, structural determinants of poor health.' Martin Khor, Third World Network 'Governments and intergovernmental organizations have structured our social world so that half of humankind still lives in severe poverty. These global poor suffer vast health deficits. This greatest moral outrage of our time will continue until citizens reflect on its causes and firmly place the human rights of the global poor on the political agenda. Global Health Watch is a courageous and promising effort in this direction.' Thomas Pogge, Australian National University 'Global Health Watch offers a critique of global trends that threaten health including the practices of multinational corporations, the false promise of the genetics revolution, the scandal of hunger in a world of plenty and the failure of UN institutions such as WHO to live up to their original mission to promote the health of poor people. It also demonstrates, with practical suggestions, that another world is possible. It will become the essential guidebook for health activists who want to campaign for a kinder, more equitable, healthier and people-centred world.' Fran Baum, member of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health 'A much-needed resource, unique, and reflecting the work of well qualified authors from all continents. I applaud the effort -- and the result.' Philip R. Lee, MD, Professor of Social Medicine (Emeritus), University of California, San Francisco