Equity in Health in the Age of Globalization
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Development. Copyright © 1999 The Society for International Development. SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi), 1011-6370 (199912) 42:4; 5–7; 010911.
Upfront
Equity in Health in the Age of Globalization Conference Statement of the Society for International Development, World Health Organization and Rockefeller Foundation International Roundtable: ‘Responses to Globalization: Rethinking equity and health’ 12–14 July 1999, World Health Organization Headquarters, Geneva
Calls for action Through purposeful and well-planned effort, globalization offers great potential for improving health outcomes. The growth of transnational civil society, aided by new technologies for communication and information sharing, can consolidate and build on the advances in global health over the last 50 years. However, globalization has also been associated with growing gaps in health status – within and between countries. The issue of health, which should be regarded as a cornerstone of economic growth, is instead increasingly seen as an obstacle as governments are asked to privatize, decentralize and reduce budgets. Furthermore, epidemiological evidence indicates that globalization has the potential to reinforce, exacerbate or create new inequities in health. Globalization offers great potential for achieving health for all. New technologies for communication and information sharing can consolidate and build on the aggregate advances in global health over the last 50 years. But globalization has also seen growth in gaps in health, insecurity and unsafety – within countries and between developed and developing countries. The Conference participants consider that the potential of globalization for equity and health can only be reached if we challenge directly the underlying political reasons for growing gaps in equity and access to health care worldwide. In this light, the following calls for action were proposed.
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Development 42(4): Upfront The Conference participants
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1. Considering the current situation of growing economic marginalization of poor people South and North, are aggravated by regressive distribution of financial flows, and local imbalances in fulfilling basic health care and basic needs and providing basic services, CALL ON national budgets to earmark funds to provide for basic social progress and for governments to protect vulnerable populations to ensure equitable health outcomes for their populations. 2. Noting globalization’s role in the deterioration of the environment, declining standards in the poor’s access to sanitation, housing, food, water and health services, growing occupational hazards and dumping of unsafe products, and lack of political will by governments for change CALL FOR public health efforts to be linked with macrodevelopment strategies at both national and global level and address the continuing divide in global governance, varying standards for equity, access, transparency and control. 3. Considering that the markets of goods, technolo
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