Health equity in economic and trade policies

The emergence of an increasingly global economy suggests that the ability of individual countries to shape their own destinies is becoming more difficult. International trends and pressures now influence national, and even local, health care policy making. Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, together with Oxford University, looked at the effect of globalisation on health issues in South Africa and assessed its influence compared to national and local forces. Political and economic developments in the international arena will inevitably influence health issues in South Africa. Institutions such as the WHO and the World Bank, together with international events such as the spread of AIDS, affect health care in the country. However local forces also play a large part in shaping the future of the South African health service.

According to this article, the developing countries of the South should seek to establish trade and financial arrangements between themselves. Instead of seeking alliances with the United States or China, they could construct regional arrangements independently from the rules governing the global system. In this way, the economies of emerging countries will not have to be contingent on the problems experienced by the economies of these superpowers. A regional currency basket is also proposed, to build local capacity and independence. These various arrangements in different parts of the South could eventually be inter-related at the level of a global South. The article points to the failure of the G20 to reach consensus on a number of issues, including trading in health services, as indication that there is no possible global consensus. The author suggests that the way forward for countries of the South is to take independent initiatives among themselves.

This paper presents a comprehensive mapping of governance efforts by international organizations to address counterfeit medicines, including analysis of related international treaties and conventions that may be applicable to anticounterfeit efforts. The paper reviews governance and global health diplomacy proposals from the literature that addresses counterfeit medicines. A number of international organizations have become active in addressing the global trade of counterfeit medicines. However, governance approaches by international organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Interpol and the World Customs Organization (WCO), have varied in scope and effectiveness. The authors argue that treaty instruments with applicability to counterfeit medicines have not been fully leveraged to combat this issue and argue that a formalized and multi-stakeholder governance mechanism is needed to address the issue, and that the UNODC should convene it.

The Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa was unprecedented in both its scale and impact. Out of this human calamity has come renewed attention to global health security—its definition, meaning, and the practical implications for programmes and policy. For example, how does a government begin to strengthen its core public health capacities, as demanded by the International Health Regulations? What counts as a global health security concern? In the context of the governance of global health, including World Health Organization reform, it will be important to distil lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak. Prof. Heymann led a group of respected global health practitioners to reflect on these lessons, to explore the idea of global health security, and to offer suggestions for the next steps. The paper describes some of the major threats to individual and collective human health, as well as the values and recommendations that should be considered to counteract such threats in the future. Many different perspectives are proposed but their common goal is a more sustainable and resilient society for human health and wellbeing.