How wealth and greed are destroying our health and environment and what’s to be done?

How wealth and greed are destroying our health and environment and what’s to be

done?

Fran BaumPeople’s Health Movement

Southgate Institute for Health Society & Equity

Flinders UniversityAdelaide, Australia

Richest woman in the world –accumulating as much in a second as many Africans earn in a year

Global oligarchy of wealthy – across borders

Avoiding tax

Making profit without accounting for health, social & environmental impact

My Argument

• There is lots of evidence on inequities and health inequities – shows things are growing much more unequal in last decades

• Commission on Social Determinants of Health summarised evidence and areas for action

• Why doesn’t action happen?– Distractions – behaviour, trickle down, need for growth– Corporate power and capitalist system that underpins

inequities – Manufacturing consent

• What’s to be done

Per capita income in low-, middle- and high-income countries: GNI per capita and PPP income per capita (GNI) ($US equivalent): 2003-2009

Source: World Bank - World Development Reports 2005-2011

Gaps Widening

Global wealth distribution 2000(Baum 2008: 418 quoting Davies et al 2006:47)

Region Pop Share Wealth per adult

Wealth Share

North America

6.1 190,653 34.3

Europe 14.9 67,232 29.5

Africa 10.2 3,558 1.1

World 100 33,893 100

Life expectancy at birth by World and UN region: 1960 -2005

World Bank 2006: Disease and Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2nd edition

Gap Widening

Under 5 mortality rates/1000 live births; low-, middle- and high-income countries: 1990 - 2009

Source: World Bank - World Development Reports 2005-2011

Percentage reduction in rates of infant mortality (under 1 year) per 1000 live births by region from 1955 to 2005

Clark, R. (2011) World health inequality: Convergence, divergence, and development. Social Science & Medicine 72: 617-624

Commission on the Social Determinants of Health

• Launched 28th August 2008 by Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General, WHO in Geneva

• "Health inequity really is a matter of life and death" Margaret Chan

• Equity from the start• Healthy places- healthy people• Fair employment –decent work• Social protection across the life course• Universal health care

• Health Equity in All Policies• Fair financing• Market responsibility• Political empowerment – inclusion and voice• Good global governance

• Monitoring, research, training • Building a global movement

Full report downloadable at http://www.who.int/social_determinants/en/

Daily Living Conditions

Power, Money and Resources

Knowledge, Monitoring and Skills

CSDH – Action Areas

How is it that inequities are tolerated and there has been little follow through on CSDH and other health equity reports?

• Distractions – behaviour, trickle down, need for growth

• Corporate power and capitalist system that underpins inequities

• Manufacturing consent – inequities seen as part of natural order

Distractions

• Trickle down – eventually everyone will benefit and true there has been progress in extending life expectancy

• Myth of the need for growth – so excesses of capitalism are necessary because economic growth is crucial at all costs

• Behaviours explain inequities – especially evident in terms of health inequities

Do we need growth for health?

US compared to Costa Rica Indicator (2005) US Costa RicaLife expectancy at birth

77 79

Infant MR 7 11

Happy Planet Index (Life satisfaction, LE, Ecological footprint) (NEF)

28.83 (rank 150th)

66.0 (rank 3rd)

Gross National Income per capita (US$)

41,440 4,470

Health expenditure per capita (US$)

5,711 350

Source: Baum (2007) based on World Bank, 2007

Lessons from low income high health countries: Not what you spend but how

you spend it

• Universal provision of services (not targeted at poor)

• Strong public sector• Education especially for girls• Distribution of resources crucial• Strong PHC• Support for Indigenous agriculture

Werner and Sanders, 1997; UNICEF, 1988

Distraction: focus on behaviour• “the tendency for policy to start off

recognizing the need for action on upstream social determinants of health inequalities only to drift downstream to focus largely on individual lifestyle factors”. Popay, Whitehead and Hunter, 2010

Most health policies based on behaviouralism – with focus on individual and blaming victim for their health status This approach is very compatible with neo-liberalism