Global Health in the Anthropocene: Moving Beyond Resilience and Capitalism; Comment on “Health Promotion in an Age of Normative Equity and Rampant Inequality”

Document Type : Commentary

Author

Department of Public Health, Unit of Health Policy, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

Abstract

There has been much reflection on the need for a new understanding of global health and the urgency of a paradigm shift to address global health issues. A crucial question is whether this is still possible in current modes of global governance based on capitalist values. Four reflections are provided. (1) Ecological–centered values must become central in any future global health framework. (2) The objectives of ‘sustainability’ and ‘economic growth’ present a profound contradiction. (3) The resilience discourse maintains a gridlock in the functioning of the global health system. (4) The legitimacy of multi-stakeholder governance arrangements in global health requires urgent attention. A dual track approach is suggested. It must be aimed to transform capitalism into something better for global health while in parallel there is an urgent need to imagine a future and pathways to a different world order rooted in the principles of social justice, protecting the commons and a central role for the preservation of ecology.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Labonté R. Health promotion in an age of normative equity and rampant inequality. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2016;5(12):675-682.  doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2016.95
  2. Benatar S. Global disparities in health & human rights: a critical commentary. Am J Public Health. 1998;88:295-300.
  3. Kickbusch I. Global Health Governance Challenges 2016–Are We Ready? Int J Health Policy Manag. 2016;5(6):349-353. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2016.27
  4. Buse K, Hawkes S. Health in the sustainable development goals: ready for a paradigm shift?  Global Health. 2015;11:13. doi:10.1186/s12992-015-0098
  5. Harmer A , Buse K.  The BRICS–a paradigm shift in global health? Contemporary Politics.2014;20(2):127-145. doi:10.1080/13569775.2014.907988
  6. Bakker IC, Gill S. Towards a new common sense: The need for new paradigms of global health. In: Benatar S, Brock G, eds. Global Health and Global Health  Ethics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 2011:329-332.
  7. Gostin LO, Sridhar D, Hougendobler D. The normative authority of the World Health Organization. Public Health. 2015;129(7):854-863. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2015.05.002
  8. Building a world community. Globalization and the common good. Copenhagen, Royal Danish Foreign Ministry for Foreign Affairs: Washington University Press; 2001
  9. Benatar SR, Daar A, Singer P. Global health ethics: the rationale for mutual caring. Int Aff.2003;79:107-138. doi:10.1111/1468-2346.00298
  10. Ooms G. Navigating between stealth advocacy and unconscious dogmatism: the challenge of researching the norms, politics and power of global health. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2015;4(10):641-644. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2015.116
  11. Shiffman J.  Knowledge, moral claims and the exercise of power in global health. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2014;3:297-299. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2014.120
  12. Benatar S. Politics, power, poverty and global health: systems and frames.  Int J Health Policy Manag. 2016;5(10):599-604. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2016.101
  13. Ottersen OP, Dasgupta J, Blouin C, et al. The political origins of health inequity: prospects for change. Lancet. 2014;383(9917):630-667. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62407-1
  14. Gill S, Benatar S. Global Health Governance and Global Power A Critical Commentary on the Lancet-University of Oslo Commission Report. Int J Health Serv. 2016. Doi:10.1177/0020731416631734
  15. Pronk J. Op zoek naar een nieuwe kaart. Verspreide aantekeningen over ontwikkeling en ontwikkelingssamenwerking (Charting a new path. Scattered notes on development and development cooperation). Volendam:  LM Publishers; 2015. 
  16. United Nations Environment Programme. Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. http://www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=78&ArticleID=1163. Accessed October 13, 2016. Published 1992.
  17. Steffen W, Richardson K, Rockström J, et al. Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet. Science. 2015;347(6223). doi:10.1126/science.1259855
  18. Turner G. Is global collapse imminent? An updated comparison of the Limits to Growth with historical data. MSSI Research paper 4. http://sustainable.unimelb.edu.au/sites/default/files/docs/MSSI-ResearchPaper-4_Turner_2014.pdf. Accessed October 13, 2016. Published 2014.
  19. Gill S, Benatar S. History, structure and agency in global health governance: Comment on Global health governance challenges 2016–are we ready? Int J Health Policy Manag. 2016. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2016.119
  20. Encyclical letter ‘Laudato Si’ of the Holy Father Francis: On care for our common home.  https://laudatosi.com/watch. Accessed October 13, 2016. Published 2015.
  21. Earth Charter Initiative. http://earthcharter.org/. Accessed October 13, 2016. Published 2015.
  22. McMichael AJ, Kirk RS, Corvalan CF. The sustainability transition: a new challenge. Bull World Health Organ. 2000;78(9):1067-1067. Doi:10.1590/S0042-96862000000900002 
  23. Horton R, Beaglehole R, Bonita R, Raeburn J, McKee M4 Wall S. From public to planetary health: a manifesto. Lancet. 2014;383(9920):847. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60409-8
  24. McFarlane R. Patterns of Ecological Change and Emerging Infectious Disease in the Australasian Region.  In: Butler C, Dixon J, Capon A, eds. Health of People, Places and Planet. ANU Press; 2015:461-476. http://press.anu.edu.au?p=320071. Accessed October 13, 2016.
  25. United Nations. Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 17: Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/globalpartnerships/. Accessed October 13, 2016. Published 2015.
  26. United Nations (UN). Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development; July 13-16, 2015; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. http://www.un.org/esa/ffd/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/AAAA_Outcome.pdf. Accessed October 13, 2016.
  27. Hickel J. The Problem with Saving the World. The UN’s new Sustainable Development Goals aim to save the world without transforming it. Jacobin Magazine. 2015. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/global-poverty-climate-change-sdgs/. Accessed October 13, 2016.
  28. Pogge TW. Human rights and global health: a research program. Metaphilosophy. 2005;36(1‐2):182-209. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9973.2005.00362.x
  29. Gill S. Reimagining the Future: Some Critical Reflections. In: Gill S, ed. Critical Perspectives on the Crisis of Global Governance: Reimagining the Future. Springer; 2015:1-23.
  30. Klein  N. Let Them Drown. The Violence of Othering in a Warming World. LRB. 2016;38(11):11-14. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n11/naomi-klein/let-them-drown. Accessed October 13, 2016.
  31. Schrecker T. Interrogating scarcity: how to think about ‘resource-scarce settings. Health Policy Plann. 2013;28(4):400-409. Doi:10.1093/heapol/czs071
  32. Nunes J. Ebola and the production of neglect in global health. Third World Quarterly. 2016;37(3):542-556. Doi:10.1080/01436597.2015.1124724
  33. Benatar S. Explaining and responding to the Ebola epidemic. Philos Ethics Humanit Med. 2015;10:5. DOI: 10.1186/s13010-015-0027-8
  34. Thomas H, Held D , Young K. Gridlock: from self‐reinforcing interdependence to second‐order cooperation problems. Global Policy. 2013;4:223-235. doi:10.1111/1758-5899.12068
  35. The Graduate Institute Geneva. Global Health Centre. How to make the global health governance system fit for the 21st century? Policy Dialogue Workshop of the SNIS-funded research project on ‘How to Break the Gridlock in Global Health Governance’. http://graduateinstitute.ch/home/research/centresandprogrammes/globalhealth/news/past-news.html/_/news/ghp/a-gridlock-in-global-health-gove. Accessed October 13, 2016. Published 2016.
  36. Jamison DT, Summers LH, Alleyne G, et al. Global health 2035: a world converging within a generation. Lancet. 2013;382((9908):1898-1955. Doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62105-4
  37. UN High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth. Working for health and growth: investing in the health workforce. Report of the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/250047/1/9789241511308-eng.pdf?ua=1 accessed October 13, 2016. Published 2016.
  38. Resiliencejournal. Aims and Scope. Taylor & Francis website. http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=resi20
  39. Harman S, Williams D. Governing the world? Cases in global governance. Routledge; 2013
  40. Kutzin J,  Sparkes SP. Health systems strengthening, universal health coverage, health security and resilience. Bull World Heal Organ. 2016;94(9980):165050. doi:10.2471/BLT.15.165050
  41. Evans B, Reid J. Exhausted by resilience: Response to the commentaries. Resilience. 2015;3(2):154-159. Doi:10.1080/21693293.2015.1022991
  42. Neocleous MDer Resilienzdiskurs in der Politik und in der Hilfe (Resisting Resilience: Against the Colonization of Political Imagination). 10th year anniversary and symposium of the Medico International foundation;  June 5 and 6, 2015. https://www.medico.de/fileadmin/user_upload/media/Neocleous_Resisting_Resilience.pdf. Accessed October 13, 2016
  43. Benatar S. Moral imagination: the missing component in global health. PLoS Med. 2005;2(12):e400.     Doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020400
  44. Pope A, Higginbottom  HA,  Smith G, Frieden T. A Path to Global Health Security. The White House Blog. October 12 2016. https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/10/12/path-global-health-security Accessed October 13, 2016.
  45. Rushton S. Global health security: security for whom? Security from what? Polit Stud. 2011;59(4):779-796. Doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.2011.00919.x
  46. Habermas J.  Between Facts and Norms. Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy. Cambridge: Polity Press; 1996
  47. Van de Pas R, van Schaik LG. Democratizing the World Health Organization. Public Health. 2014;128(2):195-201. doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2013.08.023
  48. Siddiqui FR, Friedman EA,  Nader A. Representativeness of the UN post-2015 national consultations. Lancet Glob Health. 2014;2(11):e631-e632. Doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(14)70319-5
  49. Sénit CA, Biermann F, Kalfagianni A. The representativeness of global deliberation: a critical assessment of civil society consultations for sustainable development. Global Policy. 2016. Doi:10.1111/1758-5899.12371
  50. Harman S. The bill and melinda gates foundation and legitimacy in global health governance. Global Governance. 2016;22:349-368
  51. Buse K, Hawkes S. Sitting on the FENSA: WHO engagement with industry. Lancet. 2016; 388(10043):446-447. Doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31141-2
  52. Leschhorn M, Van de Pas R, Schwarz T. Health cooperation: its relevance, legitimacy and effectiveness as a contribution to achieving universal access to health. MMI discussion paper. http://www.medicusmundi.org/contributions/reports/2016/health-cooperation-its-relevance-legitimacy-and-effectiveness-as-a-contribution-to-achieving-universal-access-to-health.-mmi-discussion-paper/mmi-ehc-discussion-paper-2016.pdf. Accessed October 13, 2016. Published 2016.
  53. Kickbusch I,  Reddy KS. Global health governance–the next political revolution. Public Health. 2015;129(7):838-842. Doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2015.04.014
  54. Van de Pas R, Hill P,  Hammonds R, et al. Global health governance in the sustainable development goals: Is it grounded in the right to health?  Global Challenges. Forthcoming.
  55. Atkinson A. Inequality – what can be done? Working paper 2. LSE International Inequalities Institute.  November 2015.  http://www.lse.ac.uk/InternationalInequalities/pdf/III-Working-Paper-2-TAtkinson.pdf. Assessed December 1, 2016.
  56. Purdy J. After Nature: A Politics for the Anthropocene. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 2015 
  57. Beck U. Cosmopolitan vision. Cambridge: Polity; 2016.
  58. Mason P. The end of capitalism has begun. Guardian. 2015.   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jul/17/postcapitalism-end-of-capitalism-begun.  Accessed October 13, 2016.
  59. Basic Income Earth Network. http://basicincome.org/. Accessed October 13, 2016. Published 2016.
  60. Research and Degrowth. Research and actions to consume less and share more. http://www.degrowth.org/. Accessed October 13, 2016. Published 2016.
  61. Balch O. Buen vivir: the social philosophy inspiring movements in South America. Guardian. 2013. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/buen-vivir-philosophy-south-america-eduardo-gudynas. Accessed October 13, 2016
  62. Mestrum F. The Social Commons: Rethinking Social Justice in Post-Neoliberal Societies. Petaling Jaya, Malaysia: Gerakbudaya Digital Sdn Bhd; 2016.
  63. Galeano E. Las Palabres Andantes. Argentina: Catálogos SRL; 1993. http://static.telesurtv.net/filesOnRFS/news/2015/04/13/laspalabrasandantes.pdf. Accessed October 13, 2016.

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 21 October 2016
  • Revise Date: 06 December 2016
  • Accept Date: 07 December 2016
  • First Publish Date: 01 August 2017

Share

How to cite

Statistics