The role of NGOs in national health systems and global health policy. Workshop at the People's Health Assembly

Cape Town, 6-11 July 2012. The People’s Health Assembly (PHA) is a global event bringing together health activists from across the world to share experiences, analyse the global health situation, and develop civil society positions which promote health for all. It is an opportunity to reassess, redirect and re-inspire. PHA3 is organized by the People’s Health Movement PHM: “PHA3 is not just about developing our movement. It is also about impacting directly in the struggle for social justice: health for all, decent living conditions for all, work in dignity for all, equity and environmental justice.”

The Medicus Mundi International Network (MMI) is an affiliated network to the People's Health Movement.

> People's Health Movement: website
> People’s Health Assembly: website

……………………
Outline: Series of self-organized workshops during PHA 3

In the public interest? The role of NGOs
in national health systems and global health policy

The Medicus Mundi International Network and a number of member and partner organizations will contribute to the People’s Health Assembly with a series of workshops, providing a space for critical reflecting on the role and the future of private not for profit health service providers and international NGOs: What does it need to make NGOs part of the solution and not the problem?

We will link the discussion on the integration of NGOs in national health systems with debates on the role of NGOs in global health governance and on the relations between NGOs and social movements such as the PHM and many of its members. Let us define the common ground, share experiences and strengthen alliances.

• “Contracting NGOs for Health – this has been more than a slogan, but a strategic priority of the Medicus Mundi International Network (MMI) over the last years: the promotion of the integration of private not for profit health institutions in national health systems. We have been strongly and successfully advocating the development of contractual arrangements between private not for profit facilities and Health Ministries. But when one promotes a technical approach to address a public health issue, one also likes to be ensured whether it works. Therefore we mandated the ITM Antwerp to conduct a study on the experiences with contracting in Sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on faith-based institutions. Now we know the results - and we are rather concerned with what we learnt.” (Contracting between faith-based and public health sector in Sub-Saharan Africa: An ongoing crisis? The case of Cameroon, Tanzania, Chad and Uganda, MMI 2009/2012)

• “It is now becoming clearer that NGOs, if not careful and vigilant, can undermine the public sector and even the health system as a whole, by diverting health workers, managers and leaders into privatized operations that create parallel structures to government and that tend to worsen the isolation of communities from formal health systems. The purpose of the NGO Code of Conduct for Health Systems Strengthening is to offer guidance on how international NGOs can work in host countries in a way that respects and supports the primacy of the government’s responsibility for organizing health system delivery The code serves as a guide to encourage NGO practices that contribute to building public health systems and discourage those that are harmful.” (NGO Code of Conduct for Health Systems Strengthening, 2008, http://ngocodeofconduct.org)

• “International NGOs are at a crossroads. Caught up in a tide of technocracy, they have become increasingly managerialist – ‘outsider’ experts disconnected from the real struggle. But which road should they take? Can they transform societies, or should they opt for a more modest role, as catalysts for change?” (Ellen Lammers in: The Broker, March 2012)

• “We call on the UN to distinguish between industries, including business-interest not-for-profit organisations (BINGOs) and public interest non-governmental organisations (PINGOs), that are both currently under the ‘Civil Society’ umbrella without distinction.” (Conflict of Interest statement of concern, September 2011)
  

1. NGOs and health systems

• The challenge of integrating private not for profit health service providers in national health systems
• How NGOs can strengthen health systems

2. NGOs: the good, the bad and the evil?

• NGOs: How to find out if you are rather part of the problem or part of the solution  
• Public vs. business interest NGOs as actors in global health - a hot issue in the WHO reform debate
  

3.  Unite for better access to health

• Social movements and NGOs: sharing experiences and strengthening alliances
• Democratizing global health: implications for and needs at country level

We herewith invite interested organizations and individuals participating in the PHA3 to get involved in the planning of the workshop series or a particular module together with us. Let us know if you want to become part of the team! And get back to us if you have particular questions or suggestions.

Confirmed co-hosts

Thanks to Wemos, Cordaid, medico international, Medicus Mundi Catalunya,  IBFAN , EPN and UCMB who already agreed to be part of the team.

Contact

Thomas Schwarz, Executive Secretary, Medicus Mundi International Network
schwarz@medicusmundi.org