#COP25 can barely break into the news cycle - but the public is well aware by now that business-as-usual is not an option if ecological breakdown is to be averted and move to a fairer, safer and more peaceful ways of co-existing on the planet are to be found. Business-as-usual means maintaining trade rules and treaties that give corporations enormous power to endlessly extract natural resources; sacrificing communities and ecosystems in those places to feed rampant consumerism for the profit of a powerful minority. This film’s calls on us to reject business-as-usual and advocate for a #BindingTreaty on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights and are building solidarity across countries and movements to demand Rights for People, Rules for Corporations.
Useful Resources
Joint Action and Learning Initiative on National and Global Responsibilities for Health (JALI) is a global coalition of civil society organisations and academia collaborating to challenge inequality in access to health care around the world and to develop strategies to promote and fulfill the human right to health. JALI’s ultimate goal is to develop and see implemented a Framework Convention on Global Health that will serve to guide all countries on their global responsibilities – both individually and collectively – to ensuring access to health care. Discussions around the initiative began in late 2009 and the website is regularly updated with new documents and articles by JALI members. If you would like to join or contribute to JALI, please contact JALI at the email address given.
Rural and Remote Health, the international, electronic Journal of Rural and Remote Health education, practice and policy is an initiative of the Greater Green Triangle University Department of Rural Health, located in south-eastern Australia. The Journal's aim is to provide an easily accessible, peer-reviewed, international evidence-base to inform improvement in health service delivery and health status in rural communities.
The Organisation for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA) is offering Sabbatical Research Grants to successful applicants based in Eastern and Southern Africa. Proposals may be submitted by researchers from any of the disciplines in the social sciences involving applied social and economic analysis of contemporary development issues.
This site lists and bears the various health protocols formulated by the SADC member states.
SALC announces the establishment of an HIV/Aids Programme under the direction of Project Lawyer, Priti Patel. The effect of HIV/Aids in the southern Africa region has been catastrophic. As of 2006, more than 30% of all people living with HIV resided in Southern Africa. The promotion and protection of fundamental human rights is critical to stemming the spread and impact of HIV/Aids on individuals and communities. The failure to comply with human rights standards aids in the spreading of HIV and magnifies the negative impact of the disease on communities.
Video in French: L'agenda politique entourant la 'couverture sanitaire universelle' ouvre la voie à la privatisation des systèmes de santé publics dans le Sud global. En Inde, cette approche basée sur l'assurance privée a négligé les priorités de santé publique et affaibli les soins de première ligne. Cette vidéo d'animation encourage les gens du monde entier à se mobiliser pour défendre les alternatives publiques pour réaliser la santé pour tous. Produit par: Municipal Services Project (MSP) et People's Health Movement (PHM).
Social issues should be addressed socially and in multi-stakeholder mode, not by private interest and experts alone in processes of knowledge production, planning and decision-making. This guide is an important step in the creation and mobilisation of practical, authentic knowledge for social change. The guide has been divided into two parts. Part 1 outlines the concepts and skillful means needed to support multi-stakeholder dialogue. It also provides detailed instructions on how to integrate and ground collaborative inquiry in the projects, plans, evaluations and activities of multiple stakeholders. Part 2 highlights a selection of techniques and learning for collaborative inquiry and examples of real life applications in South Asia and Latin America. Examples focus on a range of issues including land tenure, local economic development, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and organisational development. Techniques include using Action Research Training (ART), problem tree, force fields, CLIP social analysis (collaboration, conflict, legitimacy, interests and power).
This paper describes a new financial planning tool developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to assist low- and middle income-countries in scaling up a core set of interventions to tackle non-communicable diseases (NCDs).The tool can be used to forecast resource needs at national and sub-national levels. It can enhance traditional budgeting mechanisms in countries and provide new information to development agencies about the resources needed to tackle the growing burden of NCDs. The tool has been used to produce a ‘price tag’ for a combined set of population-based and individual level ‘best buy’ NCD interventions that have been identified as priority actions by WHO. The average yearly cost for all low- and middle-income countries is estimated to be US$11.4 billion over the period 2011-2025. The cost per head of population is low, representing an annual investment of under US$1 in low-income countries and US$1.50 in lower middle-income countries. Expressed as a proportion of current health spending, the cost of implementing such a package amounts to 4% in low-income countries and 2% in lower middle-income countries. Population-based ‘best buy’ interventions address tobacco and harmful alcohol use, as well as unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.
This toolkit from the World Health Organisation addresses the fact that lack of access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment has perpetuated HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in many countries. Increasing the availability and accessibility of ARV treatment will significantly reduce stigma and discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients.