Letter

Medact, together with the People’s Health Movement and GEGA, is planning the publication of the Global Health Watch, a report providing a civil society view on the state of the world’s health. In preparation for this report, Medact is calling for testimonies from civil society on the different issues covered by the report. We will launch this call in several waves: firstly, we are looking for testimonies on the effects of the marketization of:

1. Health care provision in the developing world. Issues we are particularly interested in are:
* the effects of privatisation and commercialisation on access to health care and the quality of health care. For example, has privatisation led health providers to see health care as a business rather than a public service? Has it resulted in an increase in user fees? Have profit-motives led to an increase in unethical practices such as using cheaper drugs that do not work?
* ways in which advocacy has improved access to health services (such as report cards for public services; participatory budgeting; and health consumer protection groups).

2. Water, sanitation and electricity services.
* What is the effect of privatisation on access to these services? How does reduced access to water, for example, affect the poor? What is the effect on cost and quality of these services?

The testimonies will feed into and support arguments put forward in the publication. They will also be organised thematically and geographically and available for public access on the web. Testimonies should be no more than 800 words in length. We hope that the Global Health Watch will form a mechanism to express and amplify civil society’s concerns about the increase in marketisation and commercialisation of key public services and goods. Join us in this venture by helping us collate the testimonies of the unheard. Please e-mail Patricia Morton at [email][email protected]