World Health Assembly Day 3: Code Still in Draft, Some Positive Developments
As a member of the Global Health Council's delegation to the 63rd World Health Assembly, Amy will be blogging from Geneva this week on the discussions and vote related to the Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. See her first and second posts.
It was a long day, with some developments but nothing firm to report yet. The Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel is still being held captive behind closed doors by the drafting committee in Geneva.
There were some tidbits today, though.
As director of the Office of Global Health Affairs, our friend Nils Daulaire came to Geneva as head of the U.S. delegation at the World Health Assembly. He's the guy in charge. The big cheese. The boss.
David Olson of the Global Health Council posted my blog entry on the GHC web site early in the morning. Apparently Nils still reads the blog, left over from his days as executive director of GHC. Mary Robinson also met with Nils in the morning and exercised her arts of moral persuasion.
A little later in the morning, Nils and a couple of others from the U.S. delegation held an open meeting about the Global Health Initiative (the others were Kerri Ann Jones of the State Department and Mary Wakefield of HRSA). In the Q&A I said I was pleased to see the Administration was interested in a Whole of Government Approach, and that they were committed to health systems strengthening. If that's the case, I asked, why is the U.S. delegation in the room next door working so hard to shred the Code of Practice?
Who knows, because it's strictly speculation on my part, but there is some evidence Nils was not fully aware of the activities of the Code negotiating team (headed by Ann Blackwood, an attorney with the State Department, and Mark Abdoo, on the National Security Staff (!)). When I saw Nils later, he said to me, "(the word) 'ethics' is back in the code." Others trickling out of the room confirmed there seemed to be a shift in the rhetoric and attitude of the U.S. team in the room after Nils' intervention. They weren't falling over themselves to strengthen the Code or anything, but maybe they at least won't get much pride out of killing it.
They will really have to sprint to get this done by Friday, as any new language will need to be translated, printed, circulated and taken up on the floor of Committee A. When it comes up, I will testify on behalf of the Global Health Council.
Let me just take a moment to comment on the quality of our team here. First, Thomas Schwartz of Medicus Mundi did a fabulous job putting together the materials for the side event. Anke and the Wemos team are faithfully hovering around the doors of the Code sausage-making room with me. Sandra Kiapi, staff from the Global Health Workforce Alliance and Realizing Rights (especially Ibadat Dhillon) are also here. Eric Williams is supporting from the Physicians for Human Rights office back home. There are also some particularly dedicated official country delegations who are hanging in there to protect the Code from serious emasculation: Norway, Sweden, South Africa, EU (Spain), other African countries.... It's an honor to work with these folks.
I might go so far as to say that without our civil society presence here to keep the spotlight on the U.S., there would be slim hopes for the Code.
Okay, let's hope there is good news tomorrow!
Leave a Reply