Health equity in economic and trade policies

This second article of the series identifies and describes several, often interacting clusters of pathways leading from globalisation to changes in SDH that are relevant to health equity. These involve: trade liberalization; the global reorganization of production and labour markets; debt crises and economic restructuring; financial liberalization; urban settings; influences that operate by way of the physical environment; and health systems changed by the global marketplace.

African governments are under intense pressure from within but also from big agribusiness and Western governments to embrace genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Throughout Africa, GMOs - organisms that have been biologically modified to incorporate genes with desired traits - are now being touted as a major solution to hunger and mass poverty. Supporters of biotechnology, like Kenyan-born Harvard scholar Prof Calestous Juma, believe that with GMOs Africa, which has 60 per cent of all the arable land, will be able to feed not just its people but the world. The author argues that governments must resist all forms of arm-twisting and food colonialism and make their biotechnology choices based on the facts. There are three basic concerns about GMOs. First, the science is at best inconclusive regarding the safety of genetically engineered organisms on human health and the environment. The second concern is about food sovereignty. Opponents are convinced that the campaign for GMOs is part of the neoliberal agenda to place agricultural production in the hands of a few corporate giants through seed patents and deny small farmers control of production. Finally, the author argues that the GMOs crusade distorts the debate about food security and poverty alleviation. The problems afflicting small farmers are argued to have very little to do with technology, and almost everything to do with unequal access to land, water, affordable inputs, markets and other resources.

The author argues that fair trade isn’t only about coffee and bananas. The Fairtrade Foundation points out that it doesn’t matter what the commodity is, people should get a fair price for the work they do. African gold miners are often exploited, but the author argues that workers do not have a choice; it’s dig or starve and it’s accept a pittance for their labors or work harder the following day. The Fairtrade Foundation is reported to have intervened and to be gradually improving conditions on mines. In this photo - essay Ian Berry reflects on the Ugandan gold trade as efforts are made to encourage fairer trading practices. He follows the gold from Ugandan mines to the London workshops of jewellers.

Nearly a quarter of a million persons from more than 150 countries have voiced concerns over the negative impact that a legal challenge brought by the multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis against India's patent law could have on access to medicines in developing countries. The legal challenge brought by the Swiss-based Novartis against the government of India began to be heard in the Chennai High Court on Monday - despite an international petition launched by the international medical humanitarian organization Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) last December to put pressure on the company to drop its patent case against India.