The World Health Organizations publishes a report every year on global health. Called, as you might expect, the World Health Report, it provides an “expert assessment of global health, including statistics relating to all countries, with a focus on a specific subject.” The World Health Report is a great resource – it tracks global health trends and offers useful background on its theme of the year. But no report can include anything, and a document produced by a major bureaucracy is bound to focus on mainstream ideas.
Enter Global Health Watch. A broad alliance of public health professionals, health care practitioners and civil society, they produce an alternate world health report every year. It seeks to highlight voices that are not part of the WHO’s World Health Report, provide an alternate view of global health issues, and promote accountability in the mainstream global health establishment.
Right now, Global Health Watch has issued a call for contributors to Global Health Watch 3. They are interested in case studies on a whole range of global health topics. The topics include equity and access issues with health care, efforts to combat public sector corruption and inefficiency, and “The good and bad practices bilateral and multi-lateral donors on public health stewardship and on the performance of health care systems.”
Alternate reports like Global Health Watch and the shadow CEDAW enrich and enliven public discussion on topics that matter. The more voices that are heard, the better our understanding becomes.