Political Economy for Health Blog
Posts are by members of the Peoples Health Movement PEH Network. Anyone may comment but you will need to register before your first comment will be published.
This blogsite is a resource of the People’s Health Movement. Its purpose is to provide a platform for discussion of the applications of political economy to the struggle for health. (The People’s Charter for Health provides an overview of PHM’s analyses and objectives: the ‘struggle for health’).
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“Stop looking north, look to the world”. Can we imagine Global Health without the USA at its centre
By Cristian Montenegro and Sebastian Fonseca in PLOS Global Public Health, 14 Feb 2025 “Colombia, stop looking north; look to the world.” These are some of the words used by Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, in response to U.S. president Donald Trump’s economic threats— themselves a reaction to Petro’s initial refusal to accept U.S. military planes carrying deported…
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Rethinking food security monitoring in crisis
New briefing paper released by FIAN 20 Feb 2025 FIAN International has released a new briefing paper (available in English, Arabic, Spanish, and French) that explores the ongoing issue of ineffective monitoring in situations of crises, including starvation and famine, worldwide, with a specific focus on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system. In…
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Healthcare financing in the post-COVID world
By Indranil, 4 Nov 2021, in People’s Health Dispatch The way health systems are financed has a lot to do with the distribution of health inequities around the world. If rich countries were to change their approach to health financing, everyone would benefit. The models chosen for financing health systems have a profound impact on…
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The Trump Effect: pushing global health to the brink
In Part 1 of an n-depth analysis, Dr B Ekbal examines the potential global health impact of Donald Trump’s presidency, drawing parallels to his past healthcare policies Originally published in People’s Health Dispatch, 6 Feb 2025 President Donald Trump, in his second term, has made a series of decisions that have significantly undermined the global…
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As Trump pauses enforcement of an anti-bribery law, will pharma engage in bad behavior?
Ed Silverman in Stat+, 12 Feb 2025 Between 2011 and 2020, 10 of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies paid a combined $1.34 billion in fines to the U.S. government for bribing foreign officials in order to boost purchases of their medicines. The law that made it possible is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which has…
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Technology transfer in global health – A Post-Pandemic Reckoning for WHO Member States
Deep dive by Priti Patnaik and Nishant Sirohi in Geneva Health Files 13 Feb 2025 Obligations on technology transfer have been one of the most difficult discussions in the ongoing negotiations towards a Pandemic Agreement at the World Health Organization. The topic is charged, and has a chequered history in international development across many forums.…
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Synthesis and Conclusions: Securing technology transfer in the Pandemic Agreement
Suerie Moon’s Synthesis and Conclusions of Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Health Centre workshop on technology transfer in January 2025. Published in Medicines Law and Policy 12 Feb 2025. Technology transfer has been one of the more politically and technically difficult issues on which to forge consensus in the Pandemic Agreement negotiations. In the wake of…
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Gilead’s short-term win threatens the future of pharmaceutical public-private partnerships
Opinion by Christopher Morten et al in STAT News 12 Deb 2025 On Dec. 19, 2024, we joined other professors of law, medicine, and public health to file an amicus brief in support of the U.S. government in the government’s landmark patent lawsuit against leading HIV drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc. On Jan. 15, 2025, the U.S. government…
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The Lancet Commission on Transforming Primary Health Care in the Post-COVID-19 Era
William Chi-Wai Wong, Vivian Lin, Xiaoxuan Fang, Michael Kidd on behalf of the Lancet Commission on Transforming Primary Health Care in the Post-COVID-19 Era. From The Lancet 15 Feb 2025 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)00198-9 Primary health care (PHC) was established as a global priority in the 1978 Alma-Ata Declaration. Four decades later, the 2018 Astana Declaration reaffirmed the call for universal health coverage for all…
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Brics summit to tackle AI governance, global health and financial reform: Brazil
Note from bloc’s chair this year reflects plan to promote equitable global governance rather than control by ‘just big corporations’ (From Igor Patrick, SCMP, 14 Feb 2025) The next annual Brics summit will take up artificial intelligence governance, global health cooperation and financial reform, according to a “concept note” on Thursday from Brazil, the bloc’s chair this year. Brazil will…
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