Middle East and North Africa - Regional Activities
Workshop on PHM & Health Ethics, Damascus
As part of the 45th Annual Science Week Conference on
Professional Development of Healthcare at Damascus University, November
22-24, 2004, PHM Syria will be organizing a workshop on PHM & Health
Ethics.
The
focus of the conference is on the following themes:
- Continuing
Medical Education (CME)
- Continuing
Professional Development (CPD)
- Evidence-Based
Medicine (EBM)
- Electronic
Medicine
- Medical
Ethics
For more information contact:
Ghassan Sharour, MD
Syrian Medical Informatics Association Organizing Committee
email: afodafro@scs-net.org
December 10, 2004
Beirut, Lebanon
Towards a People’s Health Movement in the Arab Countries: A
general meeting in Beirut, Lebanon discussing challenges and lessons learned
from success stories in the Global PHM experience
In commemoration of the Alma Ata Declaration of Primary Health Care, the
People’s Health Movement (PHM) in the Arab Region (Lebanon Chapter) and the
Arab Resource Collective (ARC) (an independent Arab non-profit regional
organization), in collaboration with the Faculty of Health Sciences at the
American University of Beirut (AUB); convened a general presentation meeting
on December 10th, 2004 in Beirut, Lebanon entitled: Towards a People’s
Health Movement in the Arab Countries: Challenges and lessons learned from
success stories in the Global PHM experience
Three PHM activists put forward presentations on issues related to the
Global PHM experience and its implication on the building process of a
People’s Health Movement in the Arab Region:
• Professor David Sanders, School of Public Health, University of the
Western Cape, South Africa and member of the PHM Global steering committee;
• Dr. Lanny Smith, Liberation Medicine Organization, USA and a PHM activist;
• Dr. Ghassan Issa, Health Unit Director at the Arab Resource Collective and
a PHM activist
Professor David Sanders’s presentation, entitled People’s Health Movement:
Background, processes and challenges in establishing a broad-based health
movement, focused on three main issues:
1. The inequitable progress in global health despite progress in the
implementation of Primary Health Care program components, especially with
regard to very underprivileged areas, such as Sub-Saharan Africa
2. The three assaults on Primary Health Care:
a- Selective Primary Health Care
b- Inequitable globalization
c- Health sector “reforms”
3. History and development of the People’s Health Movement globally, from
the PHM Assembly 2000, with an emphasis on the principles of the People’s
Charter for Health and a focus on the PHM in South Africa.
Dr. Lanny Smith’s presentation, entitled Glimpses of the Global People’s
Health Movement, provided a photographic tour of many PHM events, from the
PHA 2000, the Mumbai International Forum for the Defense of the People's
Health III, the PHM meeting in Mexico and the participation of Julio
Monsalvo in Argentina. The photographic presentation was accompanied by an
oral narrative on the movement’s evolution.
Dr. Ghassan Issa’s presentation, entitled Towards a People’s Health Movement
in the Arab Region, focused on:
1. Health as a human rights issue, with the Alma Ata Declaration of Primary
Health Care symbolizing the application of the International Declaration on
Human Rights in the field of health;
2. The effect of corporate-led globalization on the Arab countries, with a
strong emphasis on health issues pertaining to war, occupation, military
conflict, violence and other complex circumstances;
3. The local roots of regional issues in Primary Health Care in the Arab
countries and the need for a comprehensive, holistic approach to health
challenges.
These presentations were followed by an animated and vibrant discussion with
the audience, which consisted of a wide array of interested persons from
universities, public health sector representatives to leaders in the NGO
community, including the General Coordinator of the Coordination Forum of
NGO’s working in the Palestinian refugee community in Lebanon, the General
Coordinator of the Lebanese Voluntary NGO’s Network, the General Secretary
of the Higher Council for Childhood and the President of the Disabled
Associations in Lebanon.
Report of Activities and Local Events
