31 May 2010

In what is being called a "marketplace for ideas" the World Economic Forum has convened a meeting of decision makers and opinion leaders from the communities of policy, business and civil society in Doha to discuss how to improve international cooperation. The event "The Global Redesign Summit" looks at issues ranging from building institutions for an empowered society and creating a global values framework, to looking at security, managing global risks and ensuring health for all. On 31 May there was a session dedicated specifically to global health governance.

This session looked at 1) How can health risk metrics be developed and applied broadly in order to improve the effectiveness of health policy? 2) How should the international community organize itself to combat chronic disease? And 3) How can governments and companies work more closely together to reduce malnutrition in children under the age of two in developing countries?

The key points and a synopsis of the discussion can also be found here.

Ensuring Health For All

A discussion paper written by Peter Piot, David E. Bloom and Peter C. Smith was prepared for this session and is available at: http://www.weforum.org/pdf/grs2010/report/6-Health-for-All.pdf

This is a very impressive contribution to the debate on global health governance. It brings clarity both to the challenges posed by trends in health, globalisation, lifestyle and poverty and to the elements of governance required to address these issues. Global governance for health is conceived as the application of framework of international laws, conventions and agreements addressing the key risks to health and the contribution that must be expected of all sectors of society. It stresses the WHO's leadership role with national governments, "H8" and with the academic, business and civil society organisations that are increasingly important actors in global health

This provides a sound basis for considering how the EU can contribute to such a governance framework for health. I would suggest four main ways in which the EU can add value. First, it can build on its, admittedly limited, experience of applying "Health in All Policy" and its contribution to existing international conventions such as FCTC and IHR to provide experience in the application of international law. Second, it can support and make more visible the leadership role of WHO with EU Member States and with partner countries, so that EU aid supports and does not undermine the WHO/national government relationship. Third, it can provide a focus for engagement with European academic, business and civil society organisations in conjunction with WHO Euro rather than as an alternative to such relationships. Fourth, it can build on the experience of the European Health Observatory, the EU's contribution to understanding the health impact of climate change, agriculture and trade to develop further the proposed framework for evaluating, monitoring and managing global health risks.