1. A glossary of policy frameworks: the many forms of
‘universalism’ and policy ‘targeting’
The recognition that certain characteristics (such
as poverty, disadvantage or membership of marginalised social or cultural
groups) can make individuals more susceptible to illness has reignited interest
in how to combine universal programmes and policies with ones
targeted at specific groups. However, universalism and targeting are used
in different ways for different purposes. In this glossary, we define different
types and approaches to universalism and targeting. We anticipate that greater
clarity in relation to what is meant by universalism and targeting will
lead to a more nuanced debate and practice in this area. Visit: https://www.academia.edu/8675091/A_glossary_of_policy_frameworks_the_many_forms_of_universalism_and_policy_targeting_
Shared by Leah Galvin.
2. Creating change in government to address the social determinants of health: how can efforts be improved?
The
evidence base for the impact of social determinants of health has been
strengthened considerably in the last decade. Increasingly, the public health
field is using this as a foundation for arguments and actions to change
government policies. The Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach, alongside
recommendations from the 2010 Marmot Review into health inequalities in the UK
(which we refer to as the ‘Fairness Agenda’), go beyond advocating for the
redesign of individual policies, to shaping the government structures and
processes that facilitate the implementation of these policies. In doing so,
public health is drawing on recent trends in public policy towards ‘joined up
government’, where greater integration is sought between government
departments, agencies and actors outside of government.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/1087
Shared by Leah Galvin.
3. In full: the four volumes of the Review of Mental
Health Programmes and Services, which the Government has been sitting on for
five months:
4. HEALTH WEALTH & THE NEW ECONOMIC - An agenda for a
healthier world – This Report is based on the papers and discussions on
health and the New Economics, which formed part of the proceedings of The Other
Economic Summit (TOES) 1985. The Report contains more than 40 specific
suggestions for action as part of an Agenda for a Healthier World, in which
health creation and wealth creation will be recognised as aspects of each
other.
Has anything changed???
5. Law as a Tool for Addressing Social Determinants of
Health
Despite the fact that equality and equal access to health
care are core Canadian values, the reality is that Canadians' health is
overwhelmingly dictated by the unequal living conditions they experience – the
social determinants of health. This chapter examines law as a tool for
translating our understanding of health inequities into government action to
address social determinants of health. The chapter provides a brief review of
the findings and recommendations of some of the major Canadian reports in this
area, followed by a review of international and domestic human rights
guarantees that can be invoked to challenge health inequity in Canada. The
final section examines the obstacles facing determinant of health-related
claims, in particular, the continued reliance by Canadian courts on the
outmoded distinction between positive and negative rights. The author concludes
by suggesting that, rather than focusing on biomedical and lifestyle
initiatives, social injustices must be addressed, and that moving forward on
determinants of health requires action by all branches of government, including
the courts. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2319200
6. The International Journal
of Child, Youth and Family Studies (IJCYFS) is a peer reviewed, open
access, interdisciplinary, cross-national journal that is committed to
scholarly excellence in the field of research about and services for children,
youth, families and their communities. Vol 6, No 2 (2015): International
Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies. Special Issue on the Political
Economy of Children’s Health. http://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ijcyfs
7. Don't smoke, don't be
poor, read before signing: linking health literacy and legal capability.
For more information and a link to the paper, please visit our PLExchange blog.
8. One and a half billion people live on less than $1.25
per day: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/04/17/pove-a17.html?view=mobilearticle
By Zaida Green
17 April 2015
17 April 2015
A new study by the UK’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
reports that the number of people globally living on less than $1.25 per day is
likely to be far higher than the already staggering 1.2 billion estimated by
the World Bank.
“There could be as many as a quarter more people living on
less than $1.25 a day than current estimates suggest, because they have been
missed out of surveys,” the report notes, suggesting that the total number of
people living in extreme poverty could be undercounted by as much as 350
million.
If, as the report claims, global poverty figures are
“understated by as much as a quarter,” then more than 2.5 billion people, or
over a third of the world’s population, survive on less than $2 per day.
The most deprived layers of society—people who are homeless,
or are living in dangerous situations that researchers cannot access—are left
uncounted by household surveys, which by design are incapable of covering them.
Elizabeth Stuart, lead author of the report, told
the World Socialist Web Site that “the poor quality of the data on
poverty, child and maternal mortality” are some of the report’s most
significant findings.
If one were to define poverty as living on less than $5 per
day, over four billion people, that is, two-thirds of the human population,
qualify as impoverished, according to World Bank estimates.
Meanwhile the world’s multimillionaires and billionaires,
their stock portfolios soaring, are splurging on supercars, yachts and luxury
apartments in record numbers. While the monetary policies pursued by the
world’s central banks inject unimaginable amounts of wealth into the coffers of
a parasitic financial aristocracy, the bulk of humanity struggles to survive
amid poverty, austerity and war.
In March, Forbes reported that the combined net worth
of the world’s billionaires hit a new high in 2015 of $7.05 trillion. Since
2000, the total wealth of the world’s billionaires has increased eight-fold.
The magazine reported, “Despite plunging oil prices and a weakened euro, the
ranks of the world’s wealthiest defied global economic turmoil and expanded
once again.”
The amount of wealth controlled by the top 1 percent of the
population will exceed that owned by the bottom 99 percent by next year,
according to the Oxfam charity.
This week, the International Monetary Fund released its
semiannual World Economic Outlook, where it warned that there would be no
return to the rates of economic growth that prevailed before the 2008 financial
crash for an indefinite period.
The IMF’s report further notes that despite record profits
and huge amounts of cash being hoarded by major corporations internationally,
private investment has plummeted in the six years since the official end of the
post-financial-crisis recession. The report documents the single-minded focus
of governments, central banks and policy makers in general on the further
enrichment of the global financial elite at the expense of the world’s
productive forces and the vast bulk of humanity.
The sheer levels of inequality across the globe, expressed
in dilapidated infrastructure, the assault on the living standards of workers
and youth, and the erosion of democratic rights, themselves inhibit serious
studies of poverty, as demonstrated by the ODI’s report.
The ODI study notes that more than 100 countries do not have
functioning systems to register births or deaths, making accurate counts of
child mortality and maternal mortality impossible. Twenty-six countries have
not collected data on child mortality since 2009. According to current
estimates, anywhere from 220,000 to 400,000 women died during childbirth in
2014. Fewer than one in five births occur in countries with complete civil
registration systems.
Many surveys are outdated, forcing researchers to either
extrapolate from old data, or make assumptions about the relations between
other data sets. The most up-to-date estimate of people living in extreme
poverty was published almost four years ago. Only 28 of 49 countries in
sub-Saharan Africa had a household income survey between 2006 and 2013. Botswana’s
poverty estimates are based on a household survey from 1993.
Estimations of poverty are further complicated by
disagreements over the poverty threshold. Some nongovernmental organizations
have set their own national poverty lines. For instance, in Thailand, the
official national poverty line is $1.75 per day and the poverty rate is 1.81
percent. However, urban community groups have assessed the poverty line to be
$4.74 per day, bumping the country’s poverty rate to nearly half the population
at 41.64 percent.
Wars and other violent conflicts have a devastating effect
on research of any kind, halting studies, ruining infrastructure, and
destroying records. The vast sums of money spent on war dwarf those needed to
significantly reduce social misery. The United States alone spent $496 billion
on defense last year, while, according to the United Nations Food and
Agriculture organization, “the world only needs 30 billion dollars a year to
eradicate the scourge of hunger.”
These staggering levels of poverty, inequality and military
violence stand as a damning indictment of the capitalist system, the sole aim
of which is to enrich the financial oligarchy that dominates society at the
expense of the great majority of humanity.
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