World Health Assembly 156
PSI Briefing
Brief for Unions, Summary of PSI Participation and Next Steps
Brief for Unions, Summary of PSI Participation and Next Steps
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Brief for Unions, Summary of PSI Participation and Next Steps
BACKGROUND
From February 3rd to 12th, PSI staff attended the World Health Organization 156th Executive Board (EB) meeting. During those ten days, the countries members of EB have discussed more than 25 agenda items. For each agenda item, the Director General presents a report, the member-states and other non-state actors discuss it and, if there are no objections, the members of the EB note (approve) the report. During the EB the WHO also publishes the draft resolutions presented by the member states, that will be discussed and voted during the 78th World Health Assembly, in May.
The EB took place in a particular tense context. A few days before the start of the meeting, the far right-wing president of the US, the largest donor country of WHO, announced that the country would pull out of the WHO. Because of that, there was a general concern with the capacity of WHO to fund its own work. Argentina, also governed by a far-right president, followed the US and announce they’d left WHO. Check PSI’s reaction to the announcement here.
In this link you can browse and find lots of information on the 156th EB, such as working documents, agenda, reports, etc., as well as information around the mandate of the EB and other governance structures of WHO.
Here is the agenda with the topics discussed during the EB. PSI worked in the following agenda items: (6) Universal Health Coverage; (12) Health and Care workforce; (14) Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health; (15) WHO’s work in Health Emergencies; (22) Climate change and Health; (24.3) Global strategies or action plans that are scheduled to expire within one year – Nursing and midwifery.
For each topic, the Director General offers a report, and countries and non-state actors make statements, with comments about it. The countries, then, will note the report and this item will be included in the agenda of the next WHA agenda. After that, the WHO secretariat publishes the “conference papers”, where we can find the draft resolutions. Find below the main published conference papers with the draft resolutions that will be volted in the WHA.
Another key document published after the EB156 is the “Provisional agenda of the Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly”
WHAT DID PSI DO?
Before the EB, as WHO secretariat published the documents, PSI analysed them and started to draft statements. It’s important to say that the documents were published very late, some of them being available only the day before the meeting started.
For each above-mentioned topic, PSI delivered a statement. The statements were based in our affiliates’ perspectives vis a vis the content of the report presented, and other relevant documents listed by the WHO secretariat (other WHA resolutions, reports, Plan of Actions, etc).
Read our full statements
Item 12. Health and Care Workforce
As the Global Union Federation representing more than 12 million health and care workers globally, Public Services International highlights 5 key points in light of the DG Reports and the draft Resolution:
Uphold decent work for all health and care workers in line with the WHO Code and ILO FPRW.
Support transparent and rights-based bilateral agreements, strict regulation of private recruitment agencies and engage trade unions through social dialogue.
Caution on circular migration. CM is inherently temporary work that perpetuates exploitation and discrimination of migrant health workers.
Prohibit recruitment or agency fees, as stipulated in ILO Fair Recruitment Guidelines and the UN Global Compact on Migration. Agency fees are placed on the backs of migrant workers and can in no way be considered as an investment.
Meaningful participation of trade unions and civil society in the proposed Regional Consultations on the EAG interim Report.
Emergencies
We appreciate WHO’s work in health emergencies. and call for more concerted efforts by Member States to curb these. This requires funding public services, strengthening international solidarity and centring decent work, including the health and safety of health and care workers on the frontlines of emergency response.
WHO work in health emergencies must include training of health and care workers, partnerships with member states to improve working conditions and promotion of strategies to secure decent work during health emergencies. Our experience shows that workers’ rights can rapidly be violated during emergencies. Trade unions representing healthcare workers and first responders play a crucial role alongside governments in health emergency PPR.
WHO work in health emergencies must also include strengthening Global South countries’ production capacity of health technologies, such as therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics, along with providing technical support so countries can adapt their laws to include Intellectual Property waiver mechanisms. we must also recall the negotiations for a new WHO Pandemic Agreement as a missed an opportunity to get legally binding commitments for new and additional financial resources in the Article 20 of the proposed PA. An accountable PABS system is another way to enhance access to predictable finance and health products for health emergencies.
Climate Change
PSI welcomes the Draft Global Action Plan and offer some remarks on it. It’s clear that the private sector will not be able to, and in fact is not even interested in, taking the lead in fighting the climate crisis. Therefore, instead of multisectoral approach, the response to the climate crises must be led by the public sector and multilateral initiatives.
Also, the consequences of the climate crisis will generate more inequality in terms of race, gender, and will affect negatively health, housing, food policies and democracy itself. So, it’s fundamental that the GAP incorporates concepts such as climate racism, which states that historically marginalized communities are disproportionally affected by the effects of the climate crisis. Those communities usually have less access to quality healthcare, which poses another layer of challenge, urging member states must act immediately to protect such lives.
Two other principles that should be at the centre of any plan are “common but differentiated responsibilities” and “Just transition”. Without just transition, the creation of decent work and quality jobs, the challenges to promoting health of a poorer population raise considerably.
Finally, the plan must address the need to MS to consider that at the same time health workers are faced with increased workloads because of austerity measures adopted by governments world-wide, there is also the increasing pressures associated with climate change. So, the world must refrain from cutting health budgets and instead, increase the investment in public health systems.
Director General Report
PSI represents more than 14 million health professionals worldwide, most of them nurses, welcomes the report by the DG and would like to make some comments.
We are deeply concerned with the situation of nurses and midwives on the ground and the report reflects those challenges. The decrease in the health budgets is one of the problems described in the report. However, member states must stop all policies that restrict the investment in health and education and start investing in it.
Over the last decades, the decrease in health budgets and the privatization of health systems and facilities has led to bad working conditions, with longer shifts and lower salaries, increase in patient per nursing professional ratio and unrealistic workload.
We urge MS to invest in the training, absorption and retention of nurses and midwives, by providing decent work, fair payment and adequate workload. MS must move away from pro-profit models and adequately fund public health systems.
Item 6. Universal Health Coverage – Focus on Primary Health Care
We would like to thank the Director General for the report and raise some issues of concern.
While we acknowledge and welcome the news that some countries acted in the direction of strengthening access to public health services, we believe that it’s necessary to have stronger commitment related to strengthening public funding and removing for-profit businesses from health care is necessary. Another key aspect missing from the report is social dialogue. Strengthening public health systems must include involving trade union in the policy making process, by promoting social dialogue.
There is only one reference to the need to promote decent work and to protect the health and care workforce, which is the backbone of any health system. There will be no sustainable advancement of UHC policies without the promotion of decent work, social protection, training, adequate working conditions and access to PPEs to health and care workers. The problems related to understaffing, excessive working hours, inadequate payment put both workers and patients at risk and reduces the quality of care. We must remember that the evidence shows that these problems are becoming more and more recurring where privatization practices are taking place.
The DG’s report underscores that the fastest way to UHC is through primary healthcare approach. We would like to remember that community health workers need to be recognized as health workers and integrated in the primary health care systems. Without this crucial step, the primary healthcare approach will n
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
PSI’s global health and care strategy presented to PSI’s Executive Board brings the setting of global norms and regulations in the Global Level as one of the pillars of our work in the health and care field.
By making statements on those six topics, PSI set the tone for the work ahead, towards the World Health Assembly.
WHAT CAN UNIONS DO NOW?
Towards the World Health Assembly, there is a lot of work affiliates can do to improve international regulations and biuld workers’ power. Our main goal is to achieve the best text possible in the WHA resolutions. To do that, we need to influence governments to adopt and defend our positions, propose changes in the text and vote accordingly.
Proposed actions
Write a letter with the topics you are interested in, exposing our positions and concerns, and asking what is your government’s positions in each topic
Ask for a meeting with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During that meeting
(a) ask what the governments positions in each topic
(b) share our positions and concerns
(c) share our proposed language for each topic (to be developed)
(d) ask with which countries your government is working in each topic (this is important because we can mobilize affiliates in other regions and countries)
(e) ask who is responsible for each item and establish a contact with them.
As the excellent work affiliates have done during the Pandemic Treaty negotiations, we have an opportunity now to influence the making of Global Health norms and have more instruments to workers’ power and advance labour rights.
HOW CAN PSI ASSIST YOUR WORK TOWARDS THE WHA?
PSI will offer a range of resources so affiliates can make a difference at the national and regional levels, taking our positions to their respective governments and pushing for positive changes in the draft resolutions that will be voted in May. Over the next few weeks, PSI staff will develop language suggestions, considering the draft resolutions, seeking to show how can we improve them. These documents will be shared with affiliates as soon as possible to provide more content to engage with governments.
Assembling documents
Listing key governments in each agenda item
Developing briefs analysing key documents
Workshops to identify opportunities to work nationally
Model letters to engage with governments
Webinars to bring together relevant partners and foster the debate nationally or regionally
The health multilateral system is under heavy attack by far right and neofascist governments. It’s time that we, as workers’ representation committed to democracy and multilateralism, work hard to grow our power and push for more rights.
TIMEFRAME
The negotiations are happening and countries are working on their positions as we get closer to May, when the WHA will take place. We must move quickly, so affiliates must reach out their governments asking for a meeting, as soon as possible.
MORE RESOURCES
Third World Network: WHO: Member States differ on response to U.S. withdrawal from WHO
Geneva Health Files: From Resolutions to Emergencies, Financing Crisis Pushes WHO’s Work Out of Gear
