Open Letter to Dr Margaret Chan,
Director General of the World Health Organisation
March 18th,
2009
Dear Dr Chan,
We the under-signed are members of
the global health community who write to you as the head of the multi-lateral
agency with the clear constitutional mandate and legitimacy to promote and
protect global health. We also write because we recognise the importance of
sound and just global economic governance to health, a point made repeatedly in
the final report of the Commission on the Social Determinants of Health (CSDH).
This open letter
expresses the growing consensus of the global health community that the World
Health Organisation should take bold and decisive action on the underlying
political and economic determinants of poor health, poverty and inequality. As
you made clear in your recent speech to the UN General Assembly, the global health
community has a major stake in the global economic system, and a legitimate
role in seeking the changes which are need to improve global health and health
equity. We therefore encourage you to speak out against the
injustices of the world economic and financial order, including the
undemocratic governance of the World Bank and IMF.
We call on you to engage actively in
current discussions on reform to the global economic system and to ensure that
the findings of the CSDH are acted upon. We ask you to strengthen and expand
the WHO’s remit to study the effects of trade and other economic policies and
agreements on health and to vigorously intervene where there is evidence or
good reason to show that such policies or agreements impact negatively on the health of the world’s
majority of poor people.
We look forward to
seeing you take strong action on these issues.