Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
health professionals; and trade in foodstuffs. the diagnostic tool and its companion
workbook will document best practices, data sources, decision trees, international
norms, and standards. It is designed to support the preparation of national papers,
which should help governments to assess opportunities and risks associated with
international trade rules and greater cross-border flows of goods, services, and
capital; adopt strategies to harness benefits and prevent or mitigate negative impacts;
facilitate the participation of health authorities in the trade policy-making process;
and help health authorities structure their requests for capacity building.
During the first phase of development, the countries conceptualised and developed
the tool itself. low- and middle-income countries led the process and the wHo had
an advisory group that received the outputs. when complete, the diagnostic tool and
its companion will be publicly available, but the country papers produced using the
tool will go through processes to make certain confidential information is available
only to those who commissioned the analysis. the wHo promotes transparency
and stakeholder analysis generally in this area, however, as these issues affect many
groups and much can be learned from other countries.
Conclusion
Integrating health fully into foreign and trade policies is an essential undertaking
in order to achieve the goal of health for all. Policy coherence in the health and
trade sectors is thus required. but the reality is that competition among national
interests can impede true policy coherence. the wHo and the wto continue to
measure institutional success using very different indicators—population health
and trade liberalisation respectively. Finding policy coherence in this situation is
challenging but crucial, and requires innovation in global health diplomacy and deep
and continued cooperation among ministries of health, trade, and foreign affairs.
the wHo is seeking incremental but real progress toward health and trade policy
coherence by building trusting, long-term partnerships between it and the wto that
will build momentum toward the ultimate goal of health for all.
References
blouin, chantal, nick Drager, and richard Smith, eds. (2005).
International Trade in Health
Services and the GATS: Current Issues and Debates
. (washington Dc: world bank and
World Health Organization).
commission on Intellectual Property rights, Innovation, and Public Health (2006).
Public
Health: Innovation and Intellectual Property Rights.
World Health Organization, Geneva.
<www.who.int/entity/intellectualproperty/documents/thereport/enPublicHealthreport.
pdf> (September 2008).
Drager, nick and David P. Fidler (2007). 'Foreign Policy, trade, and Health: at the cutting
edge of Global Health Diplomacy.'
Bulletin of the World Health Organization,
vol. 85, no.
3, p. 162. <www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/85/3/07-041079.pdf> (September 2008).
