Global Health Watch 2 : An Alternative World Health Report

In an increasingly integrated, globalised world with new cross-border threats to health, widening disparities in both health and access to health care, and an unacceptable level of human suffering and premature mortality in developing countries, civil society actors are asking, why is so little progress being made by global health actors?

Like its critically acclaimed predecessor, the second edition of Global Health Watch covers a comprehensive range of topics, including access to medicines, mental health, water and sanitation, nutrition, and war and conflict. Unlike other reports on global health, it also draws attention to the politics of global health and the policies and actions of key actors.

Global Health Watch 2 includes chapters on the United States foreign assistance programme, the Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Global Health Watch 2 is not only an educational resource for health professionals and activists, it also makes clear the need for global health advocates to engage in lobbying many key actors to do better and to do more, whilst resisting those that do harm.

“Combines academic analysis with a call to mobilize the health professional community to press for improvements in global health and justice. I hope it will be read by many health professionals in rich and poor countries alike.” —Praise for the First Edition, Andy Haines, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

“An important contribution to understand the overwhelming health problems and their relation to the globalised oppressive world economy” —Asa Cristina Laurell, former Secretary of Health of Mexico City and Secretary of Health of the Legitimate Government of Mexico.

“An extremely important intervention in the debate on global health policies ...sets a new standard for international reports into global social, economic and political issues. All those interested in such critical international issues will find GHW2 essential reading...an important and unique document.” —Don Robotham, City University of New York

“Global Health Watch offers a critique of global trends that threaten health including the practices of multinational corporations, the false promise of the genetics revolution, the scandal of hunger in a world of plenty and the failure of UN institutions such as WHO to live up to their original mission to promote the health of poor people. It also demonstrates, with practical suggestions, that another world is possible. It will become the essential guidebook for health activists who want to campaign for a kinder, more equitable, healthier and people-centred world.” —Praise for the First Edition, Fran Baum, member of the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health

“Ambitious, daring and foresighted, everyone should read GHW2. This is a brave report, and everyone will take something from it” —Gill Walt, LSHTM

“An incisive socio-political critique of contemporary global health issues which focuses on determinants rather than diseases, enables the reader to unravel the complexity of global economic governance of health, and helps us understand why appalling health inequities persist across and within nations - a must-read for anyone involved or interested in public health.” —K. Srinath Reddy, Public Health Foundation of India

“Excellent ... I highly recommend this treasure trove, which is full of food for thought, to scholars and health workers alike” —Maria Isabel Rodriguez, University of El Salvador

“It is very good to see issues of trade and globalization reflected prominently in a report aimed at health professionals. Global Health Watch provides them with a resource to engage in debates about these non-clinical, structural determinants of poor health.” —Praise for the First Edition, Martin Khor, Third World Network

“A much-needed resource, unique, and reflecting the work of well qualified authors from all continents. I applaud the effort -- and the result.” —Praise for the First Edition, Philip R. Lee, MD, Professor of Social Medicine (Emeritus), University of California, San Francisco

“We shall require many more social innovations, like the People Health Charter, the People Health Movement and the Global Health Watch, if mankind is to survive.” —Suwit Wibulpolprasert, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand

“Governments and intergovernmental organizations have structured our social world so that half of humankind still lives in severe poverty. These global poor suffer vast health deficits. This greatest moral outrage of our time will continue until citizens reflect on its causes and firmly place the human rights of the global poor on the political agenda. Global Health Watch is a courageous and promising effort in this direction.” —Praise for the First Edition, Thomas Pogge, Australian National University

“This edition explicitly builds upon its predecessor so that the two volumes can be used together ...this book makes a compelling and coherent case” —Vic Neufeld, Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research

“A very good reference for people working in areas affecting the health of populations. It deals with some of the most important issues in today's world. I highly recommend it.” —Praise for the First Edition, Vicente Navarro,International Journal of Health Services