This statement (here) was prepared as an outcome of a meeting of health activists from fourteen countries organised by the International People’s Health Council and the People’s Health Network (an associate organisation of the Third World Network). The group met for a week (28 November to 2 December 1994) at the Lone Pine Hotel in Penang in Malaysia.
The statement provides a sharp critique of:
- The health crisis,
- The social conditions underpinning the increasing risks to health,
- The crisis in health service systems,
- The political economy of the health crisis,
- Structural adjustment,
- The provisions of the new GATT,
- The new health role of the World Bank,
- The links between the objectives of current economic policies and their health effects,
- Maintaining the conditions for rapid economic growth,
- Maintaining the flow of wealth from the South to the North,
- Legitimising the present global regime in relation to health
- Addressing people’s immediate health needs in ways that also contribute to redressing the underlying structural conditions:
- Objective I. We will work with health workers in Third World countries, developing actions in solidarity and working to develop our shared understandings of the relations between the conditions for health in each country and global economic movements.
- Objective II. We will work the popular movements in Third World countries, developing actions in solidarity and and working to develop our shared understandings of the relations between the social conditions in each country, the possibilities for health and global economic movements.
- Objective III. We will work to contribute to a deeper understanding among the peoples of the North about the relations between the social and economic problems that they are facing; the economic policies they are supporting and the impact these policies are having on the health of the people of the South.
- Objective IV. We will work with activist networks organizing around specific issues such as arms control, human rights, the control of baby foods, alcohol and tobacco and the influence of the various elements of the narcotics industry.
- Objective V. We will seek to challenge the hegemony of the World Bank’s analysis of the conditions for better health in Third World countries and its policy recommendations among the donor agencies and UN agencies.
- Objective VI. We will collect, study and disseminate case studies of good models of practice which illustrate the principle of addressing the immediate health issues of communities in ways that also contribute to redressing the structural conditions.
- Objective VII. We will document the impact of structural adjustment on people’s health and publish widely the results.
- Objective VIII. Setting up Systems to provide for wider access to information bearing on the current trends and policies on the health of the people in the South.
- Objective IX. We will support the health struggles of indigenous Peoples.