Open Letter from EG4Health to G20
Leaders and Finance Ministers
March 18th,
2009
We the under-signed,
represent members of the global health community. Among our number are
clinicians, health researchers, managers, programme implementers and health
advocates. We write because we know the importance of sound and just global
economic governance to health. The G20 meeting is important to the fulfilment
of basic human rights to health care and the attainment of global health goals.
However, we wish to express some concerns about the forthcoming meeting.
One is
about the legitimacy of the G20 as a forum for discussing and making decisions
about global economic reform. The current financial crisis and the economic
recession is a global problem, profoundly affecting the whole world - they need
to be addressed through a legitimate, inclusive and democratic global process.
The World Health Organisation’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health
(CSDH), on the basis of a rigorous assessment of evidence, noted that:
“ …. it is imperative that the international community
re-commits to a multilateral system in which all countries, rich and poor,
engage with an equitable voice. It is only through such a system of global
governance, placing fairness in
health at the heart of the development agenda and genuine equality of influence
at the heart of its decision-making, that coherent attention to
global health equity is possible”.
The G20 excludes most of the world’s countries, particularly
the poorest countries which are most affected by the injustices of the global
economic system. Furthermore, the core of the G20 consists of governments that
have largely presided over a global economy characterised by persistent and
widespread poverty, growing inequalities within and between countries, increased frequency of financial volatility and crises, global
warming, and the unfettered exploitation of land and labour.
We are concerned that the G20’s
deliberations will be largely driven by economic power rather than by
democratic principles or considerations of fairness, compounding existing
democratic deficits in key institutions of global economic governance such as
the World Bank and IMF. It is already apparent that the agenda will be
dominated by short-term actions to stabilise the international financial
system, leaving important social, developmental and environmental
considerations neglected.
We
therefore call on the G20 to:
·
commit itself publicly to the United
Nations process for decision-making on global economic reform, including the high level meeting of the Financial Crisis to be convened
by the President of the General Assembly.
·
actively promote a broad agenda for
global economic reform that includes the democratisation of global economic
governance and the priority issues facing the world population as a whole,
particularly poverty eradication, global health and climate change.
We look forward to you acting on
these requests.