Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Possible Next Steps to Avoid Emergency Room Syndrome
one possibility is to strengthen the international organisations that would carry a
health issue long enough that actors mutually recognise it as problem and are willing
to collaborate. this was part of the process in establishing the Global Fund, as well as
other global initiatives. the principal organisation for such a role in meeting global
health challenges has remained the wHo. although within the Un system, the
wHo may not have all the capacities and strengths necessary to push global health
challenges to the top of the governance agenda. thus, it is important to consider how
to position the wHo on the cusp of the issues that make the global agenda. It needs
to be more integrated into policy areas that are consistently on the minds of leaders
so it could thus produce more compelling arguments for its member states to act and
innovate to meet health challenges. this is currently not the case; even the document
produced at the 2005 Un world Summit failed to pursue any major health issues
(Un 2005a). Yet the Un is the umbrella for the wHo and is consistently involved in
the security and development agendas. thus the wHo needs to be brought into the
more mainstream discussions of policy and decision making.
another area is the management of the global system through clubs or networks.
the most prominent club is the G8. Yet the agendas it sets and the actions it takes
do not fully recognise the needs of the developing world. If this club were expanded
to a network to include countries from each region of the world (such as the leaders
G20 have done in the realm of finance and economics) to involve the emerging
economies, especially those often invited to G8 meetings, the agenda-setting process
would be more comprehensive. bringing in a new network of countries may open
up discussion on some of the challenges mentioned in this chapter. For example, the
issue of brain drain could be reframed as a migration and labour issue. a discussion
on capacity building and research and development could lead to spreading resources
across the network. certainly, India and china have issues with population health and
migration. they are also potential players in the world of product development and
innovation. If too little attention is paid to these emerging powers, the governance
system will fail to recognise growing challenges as well as innovative solutions.
Finally, one area that should be developed to encourage more comprehensive
global health governance is the concept of global public goods. Some of the oDa
strategies referred to health as a global public good, but it is unclear what type of
action such a concept demands. a consistent understanding of global public goods and
the continued development of the term would assist in getting global collaboration
on health challenges and would ensure those challenges are dealt with on the global
agenda in a preventive manner, and not as an emergency response.
Notes
1
et al. (2005) and Inge Kaul
,
Katell le Gaulvain, and Mirjam Schnupf (2002).
