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High-Level Symposium on Global Health Diplomacy 

Negotiating Health in the 21st Century: Regional Voices in Global Health Governance

15 October 2009

 

Alison Curtis, Intern - The Symposium on Global Health Governance hosted by the Global Health Programme of the Graduate Institute in Geneva focused on the need for partnership, political leadership, and agenda and much emphasis was placed on coherence and efficiency.  Panelists expressed the need for international organizations to work with the World Health Organization (WHO), the WHO and the European Union (EU) to work together as partners, the United Nations and G-20 to be linked, and regional organizations and NGO’s to participate in the G-20 in order to help decrease and avoid double reporting.  It was also suggested that regional voices must incorporate local voices in order to be effective and governmental responses on issues must reflect the government as a whole, rather than individual departments within the system. 

Attention was called on the need to target problems of developing countries and developed countries together instead of separately, as an act of prevention and efficiency. The Gates Foundation and G-8 were mentioned as possible contenders for improving global health, and the WHO was criticized for its lack of leadership. Panelists attributed its ineffectiveness to the lack of sustainable funds, as 70 per cent of all contributions to the WHO are voluntary.  Many panelists complained that international organizations that voluntarily provide funds for the WHO are given too much priority in the agenda, and that the WHO should instead be governed by governing members.  

The Director of the Global Health Programme criticized the United States for the Helms-Biden Act of 1999, and essentially blamed it for the WHO’s inadequate funds.  WHO representatives of Finland and Indonesia claimed the EU and Asia are working towards acting as single entities, while the representative from Mexico admitted that Latin America has internal problems and focuses on issues on a national level rather than an international level. The Canadian representative brought up the issue of access to medicines and its complications in regards to intellectual property rights, and Africa voiced the need for more representation in the WHO.  Many were in agreement that priority should be placed in reforming the budget so that the WHO can fulfill its role as the global leader of public health discourse.

 

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