The Graduate Institute’s Global Health Programme, in cooperation with the University of Ottawa, held a public seminar at the Institute in April 2011 to discuss the threat that fake and substandard medicines pose to public health and the potential role of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in resolving this daunting health challenge. A major theme running throughout the seminar was the need to redress the critical imbalance in the provision of international legal tools to tackle the illicit trade and criminal production of fake medicines. A complete legal system would address both the positive challenge, to promote greater access to safe, WHO-qualified treatments, as well as the negative challenge, to stop criminal activity and bogus treatments that are intentionally fraudulent, illicitly traded and sold. Currently, the global system lacks balance, with most legal tools addressing the issue of counterfeit medicines. In other words, the international system is currently more prepared to tackle this issue as a violation of intellectual property rights rather than as a significant danger to public health.
Health equity in economic and trade policies
Privatisation of the Ugandan electricity sector, initiated in 1999 as a condition of the debt relief programme, was supposed to mean the end of state support. Yet, by 2013 a special committee of the Ugandan Parliament reported that subsidies were higher than ever before, preventing the government supporting critical development programmes. Between 2005 and 2012 the government had paid out subsidies totalling $600m to the privatised companies, alongside nearly $300m in rebates for ‘losses’ under their deal with the new electricity distribution company. An independent report is calling for the plant to be brought into public ownership because
“The high cost of electricity in Uganda has reached unsustainable levels that are severely eroding local industries’ competitiveness and domestic consumers’ disposable income”. The head of the government-owned Uganda Electricity Generation Company, has confirmed that discussions are ongoing to explore the viability of this proposal, which is designed to rein in costs and re-establish a degree of sovereign control over Uganda’s national energy sector.
An alternative South African bill on the protection of traditional knowledge (TK) has been published in the official Government Gazette that would create a new system of intellectual property right specific to TK. The Wilmot Bill aims to provide adequate, financially viable, legally enforceable protection for traditional knowledge (TK) that will provide sui generis protection for TK, comply with South Africa’s international obligations, give effect to the principles for the protection of indigenous knowledge advocated by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, safeguard South Africa’s existing IP statutes from irreparable harm, and establish a more sophisticated system for the protection of traditional knowledge in South Africa. The Stellenbosch Chair of Intellectual Property (CIP) is asking for support in their call on the government to reject the old TK Bill, open the matter for public comment from all traditional communities and support the Wilmot Bill. If the current TK bill is to become law, CIP argues that South Africa will face numerous financial, legal and practical difficulties and it further condemns the dismissive attitude of the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry toward legitimate concerns of the public.
Wemos and Medact have prepared this report to fuel the discussion on how PRSPs can be used to improve the health of the poor. The report builds on the materials from seven country studies, prepared by NGOs to gain insight into the possible added value of PRSPs for health in their countries. Based on these and other sources, the report highlights a number of issues that in our view are crucial for achieving equitable health systems and which should receive much more attention in PRS processes than they do so far. These include the coordination of development aid and international health initiatives, the debt burden and other macroeconomic constraints to increased health spending, and policy initiatives to make health care markets more socially-inclusive in low-income countries.
This paper is an unprecedented collaboration between a wide spectrum of civil society organisations in the United Kingdom (UK). the civil society organisations in the UK called on the UK government to initiate an economic system that that seeks to work for people and for the planet. The civil society statement makes recommendations to world leaders to chart a path out of recession in a way that builds an equitable global economy. It prioritises tax reforms to end poverty, accountable and transparent processes for the international finance system and calls for reforms to be implemented through the United Nations in consultation with governments, trade unions and civil society organisations.
According to this article, economic growth is not constitutively the same thing as development, in the sense of a general improvement in living standards and enhancement of people’s well-being and freedom. Growth, of course, can be very helpful in achieving development, but the authors argue that this requires active public policies to ensure that the fruits of economic growth are widely shared, as well as making good use of the public revenue generated by fast economic growth for social services, especially for public healthcare and public education. Yet it is also important to recognise that the impact of economic growth on living standards is crucially dependent on the nature of the growth process (for instance, its sectoral composition and employment intensity) as well as of the public policies - particularly relating to basic education and healthcare - that are used to enable common people to share in the process of growth. There is also an urgent need for greater attention to the destructive aspects of growth, such as environmental degradation and involuntary displacement of communities that have strong roots in a particular ecosystem.
The author argues that the situation in DRC illustrates the deficiency of global ethics, selfishness and the longstanding failure to value the lives of the African people. Tackling the DRC’s impasse requires a comprehensive approach and involvement of national, regional, continental and international communities. The author argues that the DRC is embroiled in a geo-political and economic strategic battle in the search for scarce resources that are abundant in Congo. It is the paradox of the resource curse. It is hardly remembered that sustainable extraction of the minerals would benefit global interests longer and the rain forests in the DRC are vital to curbing climate change. Tackling the DRC’s impasse is argued to require a comprehensive approach and involvement of national, regional, continental and international actors, coupled with continued research to inform policies and praxis. Equally, varied strategies designed from local cultures, African philosophy and interdisciplinary academic views are vital.
The two-day Mini-Ministerial meeting of 36 trade ministers hosted by India on 3–4 September appears to have concluded with a few proposals on a process to ‘re-energise’ the World Trade Organization Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, but with no movement on substance. Virtually all developing country groupings endorsed the multilateral approach of negotiations and cautioned against the attempt to subvert the process through bilateral or plurilateral negotiations. They also endorsed the December texts as the basis of negotiations rather than unravelling the texts. This is presumably because the US is demanding even more concessions than what is outlined in the December text. In the corridors on the last day of the meeting on 4 September, one negotiator from an invited country said: ‘Not much has happened here but a discussion on process and reiteration of positions.’ A delegate from a G20 country stated: ‘The US came here, but is in no position to offer anything. They are demanding that we open the text and give more market access, but are not willing to offer anything in return.'
The auhtor argues that there are several issues that the G20 Summit failed to resolve, besides the biggest omission – failure to reform IMF policies. First, it failed to produce anything tangible on a coordinated fiscal stimulus policy. Secondly, it did not come up with a plan of action to clean up the crisis-hit banking systems. Thirdly, there was no plan for regulating cross-border activities of financial institutions or cross-border financial flows, nor an acknowledgement that a framework should be created that facilitates developing countries’ ability to regulate the flow of cross-border funds. Fourthly, there was no move to assist developing countries to avoid wrenching debt crises. Without this, they would be deprived of the kinds of schemes by which banks or companies in trouble pay back only a portion of their loans whose market values would have fallen.
This compilation consists of short essays from a broad range of experts to provide proposals on immediate trade priorities in the context of the economic crisis and provide a forward-looking agenda for global trade governance. The essays focus special attention on the needs of developing countries and sustainable development considerations. Some conclusions drawn from the compilation include the recommendation to establish a working group of experts to propose WTO reforms. Immediate action should be taken to implement those areas of the Doha Development Agenda where agreement exists. The World Trade Organisation's capacity needs to be expanded and a trade-and-development ombudsman should be appointed at the WTO to whom third-party complaints about trade impacts can be brought.