The UK Prime Minister and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have released a joint statement on a new International Health Partnership, which will bring together major donor countries, including Britain and Germany, and key international agencies such as the World Bank and the World Health Organisation. The agreement was developed with bilateral, international health and funding agencies, developing countries, and foundations; it commits all artners to: working with country owned plans; creating a mechanism to agree donor support to national plans; coordinating their efforts on the ground; and focussing on the creation of sustainable health systems which deliver improved outcomes. Partners will work together to ensure that health plans are well designed, well supported and well implemented.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Seven ‘first wave’ countries in Africa and Asia will join the new International Health Partnership which is supported by donor governments and agencies. The partnership was launched formally at an event at 10 Downing Street, London. The Prime Minister said: "There is no greater cause than that every man, woman and child in the world should be able to able to benefit from the best medicine and healthcare. And our vision today is that we can triumph over ancient scourges and for the first time in history conquer polio, TB, measles and then with further advances and initiatives, go on to address pneumoccal pneumonia, malaria and eventually HIV/ AIDS.
On Sept 5, the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched the International Health Partnership —a global "compact" for achieving the Health Millennium Development Goals—at a prestigious gathering at number 10 Downing Street. The support for this initiative is impressive. But what does the International Health Partnership (IHP) mean for people living in poorer countries? The IHP is an agreement between donors and developing countries. Global and country level partnerships will set out a process of mutual responsibility and accountability for the development and implementation of the national health plans of developing countries. The overall aim of the IHP is to improve the coverage and use of health services—whether through public or private channels, or through non governmental organisations—in order to deliver improved health outcomes, especially for the health-related MDGs, and other international commitments such as universal access to antiretroviral therapy. The IHP does not provide any new funding.
Health ministries around the world face a new challenge: to assess the risks and respond to the opportunities of the increasing openness in health services under the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). International Trade in Health Services and the GATS addresses this challenge head-on by providing analytical tools to policymakers in health and trade ministries alike who are involved in the liberalization agenda and, specifically, in the GATS negotiations.
On International Workers’ Day PSI called for a fair globalisation and the defence of quality public services. Fair globalisation means committed and adequate investment in vital public services such as health, water, sanitation, electricity and education, where the contributions of workers are properly recognised and recompensed. It is through the proper funding and provision of these services that we will achieve more just and inclusive societies. Policies which drive countries, particularly developing countries, to restructure, outsource and privatise their public services only serve to perpetuate poverty and underline inequalities”
This book examines various views of the role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) as incentives for innovation against the backdrop of development and the transfer of technology between globalised, knowledge-based, high technology economies. The book retraces the origins, content and interpretations of the TRIPS Agreement, including its interpretations by WTO dispute settlement organs. It also analyses sources of controversy over IPRs, examining pharmaceutical industry strategies of emerging countries with different IPR policies. The continuing international debate over IPRs is examined in depth, as are TRIPS rules and the controversy about implementing the 'flexibilities' of the Agreement in the light of national policy objectives. The author concludes that for governments in developing countries, as well as for their business and scientific communities, a great deal depends on domestic policy objectives and their implementation. IPR protection should be supporting domestic policies for innovation and investment. This, in turn requires a re-casting of the debate about TRIPS, to place cooperation in global and efficient research and development at the heart of concerns over IPR protection.
This study is one further contribution of the ICTSD Programme on Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)and Sustainable Development to a better understanding of the proper role of intellectual property in a knowledge-based economy. The objective of the study is to generate and expand understanding of the policy of the EU regarding IPRs in bilateral and regional trade agreements. Additionally, it attempts to evaluate the impact of IP provisions proposed by the EU at a critical phase of EPA negotiations.
This paper examines the evidence for a 'resource curse' at subnational level. Natural resource extraction can have positive effects, generating profits, tax revenue for government, and economic linkages to other sectors. It can also have negative economic, environmental and social consequences, including changes in local relative prices that might crowd out other productive activities; deforestation; pollution and degradation; and the potential for social dislocation and displacement. This paper evaluates the evidence for how these effects accrue specifically to the subnational economy and whether government policy can lead to positive development impacts, while avoiding the challenge of unbalanced costs borne locally.
The Monterrey Consensus recognises the strong links between trade, finance and development issues. The challenge is to make trade, trade policy and trade rules work for development. This is a big challenge because many trade rules, for example in the WTO, and many trade policies, for example in structural adjustment conditionalities, are not yet aligned with development needs in the South, says a discussion paper submitted by the Third World Network to an informal meeting on financing for development.
The first plenary meeting of the Africa Global Partnership Platform (AGPP/the Platform) was held in Dakar, Senegal on 22 October 2015. The meeting re-affirmed the strong commitment of African countries and partners to achieving food security for the continent, through agricultural growth and transformation to create agricultural commodity value chains for smallholder farmers, create job opportunities for the youth in food and agricultural value chains, and support entry and participation of women and youth in agricultural and agri-food SMEs, in line with SDG 8. This was also seen as the most viable entry point for sustainable industrialization on the continent. The meeting also underlined the need to promote further regional integration, particularly through the development of intra-African trade of food and agricultural commodities. The signing of the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Agreement and the fast-tracking of negotiations for the Continental Free Trade Area was seen as important to contribute to more stable food and agricultural markets at regional and country levels in Africa. The meeting highlighted the gaps in implementation of the CAADP goal of allocating at least 10% of public expenditure to the agricultural sector.