Sunday, October 16, 2011
World Food Day 2011 - Starved for Attention
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Norway brings the conditions of everyday life to the heart of health policy
"Minister of Health and Care Services Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen will attend the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health on 19-21 October 2011 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The conference will bring together Member States and stakeholders to share experiences on policies and strategies aiming to reduce health inequities. As of 11 October 103 Member States have confirmed their attendance, including 60 ministers.
In the Norwegian context an important step in implementing Report No. 20 to the Storting (2006-2007) National strategy to reduce social inequalities in health is the newly launched Public Health Act which places reducing health inequalities through action on social determinants of health at the heart of Public Health nationally, regionally and locally."
Norwegian Public Health Act (pdf)
Norwegian Public Health Act short introduction (pdf)
To learn more about public health policies across Europe, download or order a copy of Health for all? A Critical Analysis of Public Health Policies in Eight European Countries, a brilliant book published by the Swedish National Institute of Public Health, featured here in 2009.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Marmot's "evidence-based optimism" on global action for health equity
...The ambition of the CSDH was to create a global movement for social determinants and health equity. As the global community gathers in Rio de Janeiro in October for the conference on social determinants of health, we are at a crucial juncture. Will the call for social justice and the need to formulate all policies to benefit health equity remain something, at best, honoured in speech alone? Or will the global community recognize that action on social determinants of health is not only vital for health equity but has other highly desirable societal outcomes including social cohesion, reduction of crime and civil unrest, a more educated workforce and the freedom for people to lead lives they have reason to value."
WHO: Action on social determinants of health is essential to tackle noncommunicable diseases
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Partners In Health publishes Program Management Guide

UNICEF - Austerity measures threaten children and poor households

UNICEF, Isabel Ortiz et. al, September 2011
"A new UNICEF study warns of the "irreversible impacts" of International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity measures on children and poor households. The authors argue that excessively restrictive policies undermine IMF pledges to build social safety nets to protect the vulnerable. Instead of increasing investments in life-saving health, education and other social programs, in 2010, more than a quarter of developing nations were struggling to reduce spending to pre-2007 levels IMF-imposed fiscal policies must be carefully reviewed and replaced with alternative policies aimed at strengthening the social safety net for the most vulnerable." - IHSJSunday, September 11, 2011
Grappling with the tensions around non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
Informing the 2011 UN Session on Noncommunicable Diseases: Applying Lessons from the AIDS Response
From the Institute for Health and Social Justice (IHSJ) Reader:
"In two weeks, the United Nations (UN) High-Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases will begin, providing the first formal UN opportunity for the international community to raise awareness of the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Global advocates are hoping to apply the lessons learned in the global response to HIV to inform the structure of the NCD response. In order to prevent, diagnose, and treat the dual burden of communicable and noncommunicable diseases that are disproportionately felt among the poorest billion people in the world, plans must focus on strengthening health care from the community to the tertiary care centers."
Read more: link to full article on PLoS Medicine
Learn more with updates from the Institute for Health and Social Justice.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Compulsory licensing of generic drugs remains in quagmires
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Action: Tell the UN to Focus on Poverty-Related Diseases
At Partners In Health we are particularly concerned with NCDs which are highly prevalent among the world’s poorest billion but are more often caused by poverty-related factors including indoor cooking stoves, malnutrition, etc.
Please add your name to the statement below to highlight and request attention to these causes of NCDs. We will share the statement and total numbers of signatories with the official delegations attending the HLM from the countries where PIH works and request that they also focus on solutions to the poverty-related causes in the outcomes document and programs developing from the HLM."
Download the full statement here.