Africa

The South African Chapter of People's Health Movement South Africa (PHM SA)* supports the demands of public sector workers for a wage increase of 8,6 percent and a housing allowance of R1000. We call on the government to meet these demands, and to negotiate openly and honestly with the workers' representative in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

 To:  African Heads of State during the AU Summit July 2010

The People’s Health Movement, a global network bringing together grassroots activists, civil society organizations, academics and health workers from around the world, condemns the action by the Malawian judicial system in sentencing Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, a gay couple, to 14 years in imprisonment in Blantyre, Malawi for committing “unnatural acts” based on outdated colonial laws.

Section 20 of the Malawian constitution clearly states:

PHM Nigeria circle was created when a group of young Nigerian activists were brought together at the April 2010 IPHU course- the struggle for health in Kenya. Although from different parts of the country, we recognized that there is a need for civil society to mobilize for the vision of health for all in Nigeria.

Read and download the Right to Health and Health Care Campaign (RTHHC) reports:

• Uruguay (in English), also see here.
• Cameroon (in French)
• Togo (in French)

The National Health Insurance (NHI) - in essence a pooling of public and private resources for healthcare - will potentially increase significantly funds for health, and therefore, it is assumed, improve access for all South Africans to a wider range of services.

• Read or download full article

Greetings from Nairobi.

The main objectives of PHM are:

• To promote the Health for All goal through an equitable, participatory and inter-sectoral movement and as a Rights Issue.
• To encourage government and other health agencies to ensure universal access to quality health care, education and social services according to people's needs and not people's ability to pay.
• To promote the participation of people and people's organisations in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of all health and social policies and programmes.

The Right to Health is about people’s access to healthy food, clean water, decent sanitation, adequate housing/shelter, steady employment and proper health information. Because health is determined by so many factors outside the health services, we need to promote people’s understanding of the Social

Determinants of Health as part of the campaign. The campaign must be led by civil society, including many sectors required for the health of communities.

From the 1st June 2009 the PHM Global Secretariat will be hosted by PHM-South Africa in Cape Town, South Africa.  Ms Bridget Lloyd has been appointed Global Co-ordinator.

In a new report released today, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) finds that a causal chain runs from Mugabe’s economic policies to Zimbabwe’s economic collapse, food insecurity and malnutrition and the current outbreaks of infectious disease. The report is based on a health assessment by PHR public health and human rights experts who travelled to Zimbabwe in December 2008.