Wilbert Bannenberg In early March 1979, I – Wilbert Bannenberg, an intern doctor at the time – put a notice on the bulletin board of the Faculty of Medicine at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. I was looking for other students with whom to discuss working as a doctor in low- and middle-income countries. On 19 March 1979, around 20 people gathered in my student room on the second floor of Van Woustraat 47.
‘Are you angry enough to make these maternal mortality rates drop to 70 by 2030?!’ Two piercing dark eyes are looking sternly over a pair of glasses at a group of students. They belong to Dr. Ann Phoya, President of the Association of Malawian Midwives (AMAMI). She is trying to instill a sense of urgency into a group of students at the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. Her powerful call to action hits home, there is awed silence in the room.
In the era of capitalism, the health of people and the planet is fundamentally challenged. International trade agreements and global economic policies have a great influence on national policies. They can even restrict countries in their ability to structurally improve and strengthen their health care systems. This makes health a shared responsibility at both national and global level, in which equity between and within countries should be a key element. To strengthen this perspective we need to reaffirm health as a human right and put it back in the limelight as such.
This past summer, as an intern at Wemos and as part of my thesis for the Global Health master’s programme at Maastricht University, I took up the opportunity to interview Jane Nalunga, Country Director of SEATINI-Uganda, about the country’s economic and human resources for health (HRH) situation. She has over 20 years of experience in policy research, analysis and advocacy on trade, tax and investment, and shares Wemos’ view of health as a public good.
This summer I took up IHP’s suggestion and read Paul Mason’s ‘PostCapitalism: a Guide to Our Future’. That triggered my interest in Ilias Alami’s ‘On the terrorism of money and national policy-making in emerging capitalist economies’. My “summer of Marxism” provided me with a few clues on why investing in health and the health workforce is a ‘Grand Challenge’ of sorts (to borrow a term from an arch-capitalist). That shouldn’t stop us from advocating for it, though, even if the term is still an understatement, I’m afraid.
Last week, I had the unique opportunity to meet two important thinkers of the moment, Kate Raworth and Tim Evans. In my open letter to them I explain why Doughnut Economics and the World Bank should meet.
Jorge Vega Cardenas & Corinne Hinlopen Mobility is an opportunity for health workers who do not find a job in their home country. But their emigration has potentially devastating consequences for countries where the health system is already weak. We call upon WHO and its Member States to pay attention to this pitfall.
Last week, the 71st edition of the World Health Assembly and pre-meetings of civil society discussed topics of this very moment such as health and environment, or the root causes of health inequity. At the same time, the Alma-Ata declaration from forty years ago showed its renewed actuality. That made the Assembly my trip back to the future.
At the launch of the fifth Global Health Watch in Brussels a short time ago, planetary health and justice was very much in my thoughts. This is where health meets ecology.
How can we protect ourselves against the powerful lobby of corporations that threatens our health? To answer this question, Wemos invited Professor Nicholas Freudenberg to come to Europe to speak in the European Parliament, at the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports, and in De Balie (for a larger audience).
