PHM global secretariat shifts from Bangalore, India to Cairo, Egypt

Prem Chandran John

13 May 2006
Transition from one state to another sometimes is dicey, sometimes easy but almost always fraught with a sense of unease, tinged with some excitement. For a worldwide movement such as PHM, transition is a process that calls for much soul-searching and planning and action at various levels.

Decision making needs to be participatory and as wide a cross section of the members should be involved, if not directly, at least through representatives. Regional and other considerations should be taken into account and appropriate human power strategies should be identified. Such a process, necessarily, is slow but an acceptable solution always evolves.
PHM has been through such a process to identify the next secretariat and the next coordinator recently and it has taken nine months, starting with Cuenca in July 2005 and now ending in May 2006. We had hoped that at Cuenca itself transfer would take place but due to a set of unusual circumstances, this was not to be. Hence a process began in Cuenca and will now reach completion in Geneva this month.
Now at last, with pleasure and renewed hope, PHM is glad to announce the shift of the Global Secretariat from Bangalore, India to Cairo, Egypt and the responsibility as the Global Secretariat Coordinator from Ravi Narayan to Hani Serag. With this step there is also a transition towards younger leadership which we hope will be reflected in the new Steering Council that would come about in a few months time.
The Secretariat would be hosted by Association for Health and Environmental Development (AHED), Egypt on behalf of the Middle East and supported by Global Secretariat support group that will include (1) Arab Resource Collective, Beirut, Lebanon (Ghassan Issa); and (2) Palestinian Medical Relief Services, Palestine (Jihad Mashal); and Chairperson of AHED (Alla Shukrallah). All three organisations and people named above have been very active in PHM, some before December 2000. This group will provide invaluable support to Hani when he takes over as Global Secretariat Coordinator, perhaps by June 2006.
The Global Coordinator and the Secretariat will also be supported in the interim by a Coordination Commission that will help the transition process by facilitating the evolution of the new Steering Council - that will replace the earlier Steering Group and strengthen the regional and country level mobilization - so that a representative People’s Health Assembly evolves as well.
In order to make the whole process transparent, PHM's 18th Newsbrief contains minutes of some important meetings since Cuenca and the paths we have travelled since in evolving this organizational strategy for PHM.
Much of this has already been up on the PHM Exchange. Many people from Mexico to the Philippines have written extolling the process and warmly welcoming the new Coordinator. We invite you to write too.