The World Health Organisation launched on 18 December The World Health Report 2003 - shaping the future, highlights the urgent need for investment and international support to strengthen the failing health care systems of most developing countries. "These global health gaps are unacceptable," said Dr Lee Jong-wook, Director-General of WHO. "Twenty-five years ago, the Declaration of Alma-Ata on Primary Health Care challenged the world to embrace the principles of health for all as the way to overcome gross health inequalities between and within countries," said Dr Lee. "The principles defined at that time remain indispensable for a coherent vision of global health.”
Equity in Health
World Health Statistics 2012
World Health Organisation: May 2012
World Health Statistics 2012 is the World Health Organisation’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 194 Member States, and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and associated targets. In this edition it also includes highlight summaries on the topics of non-communicable diseases, universal health coverage and civil registration coverage. The report notes a decrease in child mortality, increased vaccination coverage, while worldwide obesity prevalence almost doubled between 1980 and 2008. In the last 20 years, maternal deaths have been reduced by almost half, but the mortality burden is extremely uneven, and remains high in sub-Saharan Africa, where 500 women out of every 10,000 die in childbirth.
World Health Statistics 2014: Large gains in life expectancy
World Health Organisation, Geneva May 2014
WHO’s annual statistics report shows that low-income countries have made the greatest progress, with an average increase in life expectancy by 9 years from 1990 to 2012. The top six countries where life expectancy increased the most were Liberia which saw a 20-year increase (from 42 years in 1990 to 62 years in 2012) followed by Ethiopia (from 45 to 64 years), Maldives (58 to 77 years), Cambodia (54 to 72 years), Timor-Leste (50 to 66 years) and Rwanda (48 to 65 years). A boy born in 2012 in a high-income country can expect to live to the age of around 76 – 16 years longer than a boy born in a low-income country (age 60). For girls, the difference is even wider; a gap of 19 years separates life expectancy in high-income (82 years) and low-income countries (63 years). Wherever they live in the world, women live longer than men. The gap between male and female life expectancy is greater in high-income countries where women live around six years longer than men. In low-income countries, the difference is around three years. World Health Statistics is the definitive source of information on the health of the world’s people. It contains data from 194 countries on a range of mortality, disease and health system indicators including life expectancy, illnesses and deaths from key diseases, health services and treatments, financial investment in health, as well as risk factors and behaviours that affect health.
World Malaria Report 2011
World Health Organisation: December 2011
Malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25% globally since 2000, and by 33% in the World Health Organisation (WHO) African Region, according to latest World Malaria Report. This is the result of a significant scaling-up of malaria prevention and control measures in the last decade, including the widespread use of bed nets, better diagnostics and a wider availability of effective medicines to treat malaria. However, WHO warns that a projected shortfall in funding threatens the fragile gains and that the double challenge of emerging drug and insecticide resistance needs to be proactively addressed. Long-lasting insecticidal nets have been one of the least expensive and most effective weapons in the fight against malaria. According to the new report, the number of bed nets delivered to malaria-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 88.5 million in 2009 to 145 million in 2010. An estimated 50% of households in sub-Saharan Africa now have at least one bed net, and 96% of persons with access to a net use it. There has also been further progress in rolling out diagnostic testing, which is crucially important to separate malaria from other febrile illnesses. The number of rapid diagnostic tests delivered by manufacturers climbed from 45 million in 2008 to 88 million in 2010, and the testing rate in the public sector in the WHO African Region rose from 20% in 2005 to 45% in 2010.
World Malaria Report 2016
World Health Organization: WHO Geneva, 2016
The World Malaria Report, published annually by WHO, provides an in-depth analysis of progress and trends in the malaria response at global, regional and country levels. It is the result of a collaborative effort with ministries of health in affected countries and many partners around the world. The 2016 report spotlights a number of positive trends, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the region that carries the heaviest malaria burden. It shows that, in many countries, access to disease-reducing measures is expanding at a rapid rate for those most in need. The proportion of the population at risk in sub-Saharan Africa sleeping under an insecticide-treated mosquito net (ITN) or protected by indoor residual spraying (IRS) is estimated to have risen from 37% in 2010 to 57% in 2015. The proportion of the population at risk in sub-Saharan Africa who are infected with malaria parasites is estimated to have declined from 17% in 2010 to 13% in 2015. Further data on malaria prevention, treatment and outcomes are presented.
World public finances and global income inequality
Mestrum F, Choike, 2008
This paper reviews theories and empirical findings on inequality and finds evidence for a liberal shift in international development. While the reduction of absolute poverty has become the centre of attention in international development any concern for inequalities and relative poverty has been excluded and(re)distribution of incomes has disappeared from the agenda. However, there are numerous economic and political reasons for which inequality should be seen as a more important and urgent problem, including the violation of social and economic rights due to inequality. These factors combined with the emergence of a global civil society and the dwindling legitimacy of the Bretton Woods institutions may open up a window of opportunity for putting inequality back at the heart of a UN led development cooperation. Authors argue that a 'Global Fund' for globalisation and/or development could play an important role in spreading the concept of world public finances, in proposing global taxes and in organising global redistribution, based on the idea of a global welfare state.
World Report on Disability
World Health Organisation and the World Bank Group: June 2011
This is the first-ever World Report on Disability (WRD) and it comes at a critical time, now that 150 countries have signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). One billion people in the world are experiencing disability – one in seven of the world’s population – and the numbers are rising. The report provides strong evidence of the need to equalise rights and opportunities for persons with disabilities in all aspects of life. The authors highlight the barriers and hardships faced by persons with disabilities, especially in low- and middle-income countries, such as increased unemployment (one in two men and four in five women with disabilities are unemployed globally), increased poverty (higher rates of food insecurity, poor housing, lack of access to safe water and sanitation, and inadequate access to health care), poor educational attainment, poor health outcomes and a higher risk of exposure to violence.
World Social Forum: Demand political liberation of communities to take control of right to health
Thomas Deve, Zimbabwe
Kasarani, an otherwise sleepy stadium in Nairobi, Kenya was a beehive of activity in January. Thousands of activists from all corners of the world thronged the stadium for the World Social Forum in search of a path to sustainable development, social and economic justice, continuing a tradition that started with the first the WSF, organized in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001. For all of us present, we realise that building another world is possible, but through alternative models for people-centred and self-reliant progress, and not the current neo-liberal globalization. Those who work on health had a clear message on what that means for health. “Health is a fundamental right. The time has come work for the right to health, to put in place universal, comprehensive and equitable health systems and social security.”
Further details: /newsletter/id/32121
World Social Forum: just another NGO fair?
Manji F: Pambazuka News 288, 26 January 2007
The World Social Forum, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya for the first time in Africa, was supposed to be a forum for the voices of the grassroots. But Firoze Manji writes that, despite the diversity of voices at the event, not everyone was equally represented.
World Social Forum: Small ways to solve big problems
Mulama J: OneWorldSouth, 22 January 2007
According to global anti-debt organisations, African countries spend about 15 billion dollars per year repaying debts, in a continent where more than half of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. The continent also has been dogged with the highest rates of HIV/AIDS and illiteracy. Analysts argue that this situation could be reversed if governments spent more money on health care, education and other public service sectors, rather than on debt repayment. The issue of HIV/AIDS dominated the addresses at Uhuru Park, as speakers reiterated that it remained the greatest challenge African countries, and offered suggestions for countering the challenge.