Medicus Mundi Suisse : 50 ans de santé pour toutes et tous

Presentations and Downloads of the MMS Symposium 2023

• Medicus Mundi Suisse

• Download (pdf | 429 kB)

"La santé pour tous, partout dans le monde: telle est la vision de Medicus Mundi Suisse. Cette année marquera le 50e anniversaire de l’organisation. Son directeur, Martin Leschhorn Strebel , se confie sur ce qu’elle a accompli à ce jour, la façon dont elle influe sur le discours du Conseil fédéral et ce que les pays du Nord peuvent apprendre des pays du Sud."

• Bulletin des médecins suisses

"Transforming Partnerships in International Cooperation builds on our previous research to provide an operational guide to decolonising partnerships in the humanitarian, peacebuilding and development sector. Based on consultations with 200 participants from 70 countries, it offers comprehensive recommendations to transform every aspect of partnerships between entities in the Global South and North."

• Peace Direct

"For centuries, colonialism has shaped global healthcare, leaving behind a legacy of disparities and injustices between the Global North and Global South that continues to exert a profound influence on the health and well-being of marginalised and indigenous populations across the globe. Today, colonialism’s legacy is being challenged by a growing movement to decolonise the healthcare sector by shifting power to marginalised communities and empowering them to design and deliver their own care."

• Health Policy Watch

On 25 October 2023, the Global Health Centre’s International Geneva Global Health Platform co-organised with Medicus Mundi Switzerland and Medicus Mundi International a webinar on the theme: “Decolonising Global Health: from discourse to practice?” Moving beyond the prevailing discussions, what does it mean to decolonise global health governance in practical terms? What examples exist of successful decolonisation of international cooperation in global health? What examples exist of just global health governance structures that have reimagined aid in the post-pandemic world? These and other questions will be explored in a provocative, frank and forward-looking discussion about the complex intersectionalities of governance, aid, and the promotion of global solidarity."

• Graduate Institute - Global Health Centre

"The politics of pandemics is about more than just health. It is about how we work across sectors, balancing the complex interplay between health, politics and conflicts, ensuring equity and security in times of crisis. The lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic should guide us towards a safer and more resilient future. Proactive global health governance, based on science, diplomacy and solidarity, is key to tackling future crises. (...) The political dimension of pandemics is reflected in how nations choose to share data and information, allocate resources and work together for a common goal. Countries that foster diplomatic relations and support international initiatives are better equipped to respond effectively to pandemics. A new International Treaty on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response will be discussed at next year’s World Health Assembly, including roles and responsibilities on how to deal with pandemics by the international community."

• Swiss TPH

"The Health Promotion and System Strengthening (HPSS) project, funded by SDC and implemented by Swiss TPH, supported the Government of Tanzania in addressing major challenges of the health system. Over the past 12 years, the project improved access, quality, and affordability of healthcare with innovative solutions, like the "improved Community Health Fund" (iCHF), which provides affordable health insurance for low-income populations. HPSS substantially strengthened the pharmaceutical sector, health technology management, and health promotion, recognising the importance of community involvement for lasting improvements."

• Swiss TPH

"Diesen Mittwoch hat das Eidg. Department für Auswertige Angelegenheiten (EDA) seinen Entscheid bekannt gegeben, «aufgrund der neuen Situation seit dem Angriff der Hamas auf Israel am 7. Oktober und dem Wiederaufflammen der Feindseligkeiten im Nahen Osten", seine finanzielle Unterstützung für elf palästinensische und israelische NGOs auszusetzen. Für medico international schweiz ist dies ein falsches Zeichen."

• medico international schweiz
• Offener Brief an Bundesrat Ignazio Cassis

"Die seit Samstag, 7. Oktober 2023 kriegerische Situation in Israel wirkt sich auch in Bethlehem aus. Das Westjordanland wurde durch die israelische Armee abgeriegelt. Damit ist der Zugang von Patienten zum Spital nicht mehr gesichert. Das Kinderspital hat Massnahmen ergriffen, um die Versorgung von kranken Kindern sicherzustellen. Am frühen Samstagmorgen haben bewaffnete Kämpfer der palästinensischen Organisation Hamas einen Grossangriff gegen Israel gestartet. Der israelische Premierminister Benjamin Netanyahu hat darauf den Kriegszustand für sein Land erklärt. Das hat auch Folgen für die Arbeit des Caritas Baby Hospital."

• Kinderhilfe Bethlehem
• Download (pdf | 84 kB)

"Nous sommes alarmés par l'appel lancé par Israël à plus d'un million de Palestiniens pour qu'ils quittent le nord de Gaza en moins de 24 heures. Israël doit annuler cet ordre immédiatement. Les demandes de relocalisation de l'ensemble de la population dans un délai aussi court mettent en danger la vie des personnes forcées de fuir. Le gouvernement israélien n'a donné aucune garantie quant à leur sécurité pendant le transit ou à la sécurité des civils qui restent dans la bande de Gaza alors que les combats se poursuivent. Les agences humanitaires opérant à Gaza font état d'une crise humanitaire d'une ampleur sans précédent. Il n'y a pas d'installations adéquates pour accueillir en toute sécurité les habitants du nord de la bande de Gaza, et leur sécurité reste menacée car les frappes aériennes israéliennes ciblent constamment le centre et le sud de la bande de Gaza."

• Handicap International Suisse

"Plusieurs séismes ont frappé la province afghane de Herat. Présents depuis 1987 dans le pays, nous travaillons actuellement avec nos partenaires pour aider les victimes. (...) Les habitants de cette région sont déjà particulièrement vulnérables, épuisés par des années de guerre. Et l'hiver arrive. Immédiatement après les séismes, des membres de notre organisation ont intégré une équipe coordonnée par les Nations Unies, composée d'environ 150 personnes issues de diverses ONG. Une évaluation est en cours pour déterminer les besoins les plus urgents. Herat n'a pas connu de tremblement de terre de cette ampleur depuis des années. Nous nous attendons à ce qu'il y ait d’importants besoins en termes de soutien psychologique."

• Handicap International Suisse

"(...) L’exposition « My Lens My Reality » s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une étude menée au Centre pour les études de genre à l’Université de Berne et mandatée par le Swiss Disability and Development Consortium (SDDC) 2022. Cette étude s’intéresse à la situation des femmes en situation de handicap au Népal, un pays prioritaire de la Direction du développement et de la coopération (DDC)."

• Handicap International Suisse
• Ausstellung ONLINE

"Une paire de lunettes ou une opération de la cataracte ne coûte pas cher et peut transformer une vie. Au Kirghizistan, La Croix-Rouge s’engage pour la santé oculaire des plus démunis. (...) Grâce au Croissant-Rouge, Aïnura Karabaeva a pu passer des tests de la vue approfondis. Une paire de lunettes lui a été prescrite. Pour la première fois, elle y voyait clair: un nouveau monde s’ouvrait à elle. Aujourd’hui, elle peine à croire qu’elle puisse faire partie d’un groupe de couture et confectionner elle-même des habits."

• La Croix-Rouge Suisse

"​Médecins du Monde dévoile sa campagne intitulée « ON S'EN FOUT »​. Celle-ci vise à​ rappeler une évidence : peu importe la personne qui a besoin d'aid, peu importe sa manière d'agir, de vivre ou de penser, on s'en fout. Pour Médecins du Monde, la santé passe avant tout. Médecins du Monde fait de la défense du droit à la santé son combat. Ce combat est possible grâce à l’indépendance de parole, d’esprit et d’action qui guide nos actions et nos valeurs. Cette indépendance, c’est le choix de refuser d’être guidé ou influencé par la politique, la religion, le qu’en dira-t-on. Notre indépendance n’est pas négociable."

• Médecins du Monde

"DIE DANKBARKEIT, DIE WIR ANTREFFEN, HILFT UNS, AN DAS GUTE IN DER WELT ZU GLAUBEN UND STÄRKT UNS, DAS GUTE ZU TUN. Dieses Zitat von Albert Schweitzer betrifft nicht nur den Dank von uns, der Leitung der Schweizer Partnerschaft HAS Haiti für Sie als Spender, sondern auch unseren Dank an die tapferen rund 500 haitianischen Pflegefachpersonen, Ärzte/Ärztinnen und Techniker des HAS, die jeden Tag und jede Nacht für kranke und verletzte Menschen bereit sind. Viele Spitäler in Haiti funktionieren wegen den grossen Sicherheitsproblemen ungenügend. Zahlreiche Hilfs-Organisation verliessen leider Haiti. Die Aufgaben am Hôpital Albert Schweitzer haben deshalb noch zugenommen. Die MITTEILUNGEN NOVEMBER 2023 berichten über den riesigen Einsatz und das Improvisationstalent unserer haitianischen Freunde."

• Schweizer Partnerschaft HAS Haiti (SPHASH)

"The armed conflict in Israel and Gaza has strained the medical systems of both places, particularly in Gaza where at least 40 health-care workers have been killed. The destruction of hospitals and clinics in Gaza, with more than 75 attacks between Oct 7 and Oct 24, 2023, is a tragic echo of both targeted and indiscriminate violence against health care across the globe. The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition reported nearly 2000 incidents of attacks on health care in 2022 globally, and the 2023 trajectory is set to surpass this."

• The Lancet

"medico international arbeitet seit Jahrzehnten mit Partnerorganisationen in Israel und Palästina. Wir haben in dieser langen Zeit unserer Zusammenarbeit, die meist mit politischen Minderheiten im jeweiligen Kontext stattfand, vieles versucht. Vieles ist gescheitert oder halb geglückt. Wir standen dabei immer auf der Seite der Unterdrückten und gleichzeitig auf der Seite der Idee von Verständigung und der Suche nach einer nicht-nationalistischen Perspektive."

• medico international

We are excited to announce a call for abstracts for the Geneva Health Forum conference, scheduled from May 27 to 29, 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland. We invite individuals and organizations alike to contribute their invaluable experiences to this essential event. Presentations can take the form of a 15-minute oral presentation or a poster presentation. We are eager to hear about projects, practices, and research conducted in the field that can further our collective understanding of global health challenges and solution pathways.

• Geneva Health Forum 2024

Tout le monde a droit à la santé, y compris les populations les plus pauvres et les plus négligées du monde. Si le renforcement des systèmes de santé est considéré comme important et est soutenu par de nombreuses organisations et pays, dans bien des cas aucune aide spécifique n’est apportée à la lutte contre les maladies tropicales négligées. L’OMS s’efforce d’encourager l’engagement en la matière. La Suisse répond-elle aussi à cet appel ?

• Medicus Mundi Suisse

En 1928, Alexander Fleming découvre la pénicilline, une avancée révolutionnaire qui va permettre à la médecine moderne de se développer. Jusqu’aux années 1980, de nouvelles classes d’antibiotiques apparaissent. Toutefois, A. Fleming avait mis en garde que l’utilisation d’antibiotiques entraînerait inévitablement le développement de résistances chez les bactéries. Et en effet : certaines d’entre elles sont désormais résistantes à la majorité de l’arsenal antibiotique actuel. Organisation mondiale de la santé (L’OMS) place cette crise parmi les dix principales menaces pour la santé publique auxquelles l’humanité est confrontée. Selon une étude du Lancet, 1,27 million de décès en 2019 sont directement imputables à la résistance aux antimicrobiens (RAM), et 4,95 millions y sont associés (Murray CJ. et al., 2022). Une coopération internationale et multisectorielle est nécessaire pour endiguer ce phénomène. Il s’agit là d’une tâche difficile en matière de gouvernance de la santé globale.

• Medicus Mundi Suisse

“Making up the world’s largest age demographic, young people are ready to take on leadership roles within global health governance (GHG) structures. While existing youth engagement structures in GHG offer a promising starting point for meaningful adolescent and youth engagement, diverse youth voices remain largely excluded from the global stage. In order to overcome global health inequities and systemic failures, investments must be made in meaningful youth inclusion, training, and leadership across all dimensions of GHG."

• British Medical Journal - Global Health

"This document presents the World Health Organization Operational framework for building climate resilient and low carbon health systems. The framework’s goal is to increase the climate resilience of health systems to protect and improve the health of communities in an unstable and changing climate, while optimizing the use of resources and implementing strategies to reduce GHG emissions. It aims to contribute to the design of transformative health systems that can provide safe and quality care in a changing climate. Implementation of the framework’s ten components would help health organizations, authorities, and programmes to be better able to anticipate, prevent, prepare for, and manage climate-related health risks and therefore decrease the burden of associated climate-sensitive health outcomes."

• World Health Organization

"Health systems across the European Region are in crisis, facing existential challenges from multiple directions. This includes severe and persistent healthcare workforce shortages, which, in turn, are leading to industrial action and disruptions across Europe and Central Asia; a rapidly ageing population placing a huge strain on health systems; backlogs on everything from cancer screenings to surgeries; and, disruptions to medicine and vaccine supply chains in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. All the while the cost of delivering quality healthcare keeps increasing, especially for the most vulnerable, while health workers struggle to make ends meet."

• World Economic Forum

"While support for the idea of fostering healthy societies is longstanding, there is a gap in the literature on what they are, how to beget them, and how experience might inform future efforts. This paper explores developments since Alma Ata (1978) to understand how a range of related concepts and fields inform approaches to healthy societies and to develop a model to help conceptualize future research and policy initiatives. (...) The literature offers little critical reflection on why greater progress has not been made, or on the need to organise and resist the prevailing systems which perpetuate ill-health."

• International Journal of Health Policy and Management (IJHPM)

"Global campaigns to control HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and vaccine-preventable illnesses showed that large-scale impact can be achieved by using additional international financing to support selected, evidence-based, high-impact investment areas and to catalyse domestic resource mobilisation. Building on this paradigm, we make the case for targeting additional international funding for selected high-impact investments in primary health care. We have identified and costed a set of concrete, evidence-based investments that donors could support, which would be expected to have major impacts at an affordable cost."

• The Lancet

Actuellement, nous pouvons observer dans le monde entier que la santé et les droits sexuels sont soumis à des pressions de plus en plus fortes. Il existe de plus en plus de résistances et de défis dans cette thématique, comme l'opposition à l'avortement, la violence contre l'homosexualité, l'opposition à l'éducation sexuelle complète. Le Sénégal est un pays très conservateur et on peut observer que le niveau de tolérance est en train de disparaître.

• Medicus Mundi Suisse

"Our new report offers a comprehensive analysis of the Global Fund’s unique role in building the critical systems needed to achieve Universal Health Coverage—a vision for all individuals to have access to a full range of quality health services in a timely manner, without incurring financial hardship. This analysis explores the Global Fund and its role in Universal Health Coverage by looking at the partnership’s work in 10 distinct health systems areas. It reviews the Global Fund’s overall approach in each area and provides numerous country examples."

• Friends of the Global Fight
• Full Report

"(...) At last week’s Strategy Committee the Secretariat presented the Global Fund’s mid-year 2023 performance based on selected key performance indicators for the Strategy period 2017 to 2022 (Article 2 on Global Fund Strategic Performance up to mid-2023). This tells us that there is still progress to be achieved in key performance indicators (KPIs) related to generating and using country data. And targets from both Global Fund and domestic funding of interventions aimed at key populations and human rights programming show divergence. However, KPIs for which the Global Fund has high accountability are on track."

• Aidspan

"(...) Until now Pepfar has been funded in five-year cycles. In the past the programme has had virtually unanimous support from Republicans and Democrats. But the next funding cycle (from 2023 to 2028) became ensnared in US abortion politics and the fallout contributed to Congress missing the 30 September deadline to allow another five-year funding cycle for the initiative. What’s the link between Pepfar and abortion? US laws already prevent Pepfar (or any state agencies) from paying for abortion services, according to the California-based policy research group, Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). But in May, a coalition of conservative thinktanks and lawmakers began to make waves with arguments that Joe Biden’s administration has “hijacked” Pepfar to promote abortion instead of treating and preventing HIV."

• The Guardian

Recently I had a few opportunities to speak to both graduate and Ph.D students from North American Universities, and global policy practitioners on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can influence global development agenda, particularly intersectional development. Intersectionality is, of course, a framework that describes how our overlapping social identities relate to social structures of racism and oppression. Intersectionality merges many identity markers, including race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, religion, disability, and more, to create a more authentic and complex identity. I was encouraged to see the growing inter-disciplinary engagement at universities. I made the case for raising greater awareness of human rights, gender, and intersectionality in technology-focused studies and policy discourse.

• Medicus Mundi Suisse

"Globally, more than half of the world population (about 4.5 billion people) lacks full access to essential health services. As a result, many will not meet their Universal Health Coverage commitments by 2030. Among other reasons, COVID-19 significantly delayed and harmed efforts towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) leaving many countries off track to meet their commitments. However, it also accelerated the digitalisation of health systems. Health for all cannot be discussed without harnessing the transformative power of digital health. It is now recognised as a necessary component to achieve a more integrated health system and to achieve UHC by 2030."

• UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health & Transform Health

"Transform Health was at #UNGA78! We organised a high-level discussion on ‘Optimising digital health investment to deliver Universal Health Coverage’ and participated in the high-level meetings on Pandemic, Prevention, Preparedness and Response and on Universal Health Coverage , alongside numerous other side events and meetings. Some highlights and reflections below! (...) As we approached this year’s UN General Assembly, we had a clear ask for governments and other stakeholders to make bold commitments to prioritise #DigitalHealth to deliver UHC by 2030. As we got closer to the UHC high-level meeting (UHCHLM), and the final draft of the Political Declaration was released, we responded with a joint-statement co-authored by 22 global leaders, calling for a more ambitious commitment that fully recognises the transformative potential of digital health as a key driver to accelerate progress towards UHC."

• Transform Health

"At the 1853 World Fair, the inventor of a new safety brake technology for elevators, Elisha Otis, demonstrated his innovation by posing an elevator right over the heads of a crowd of visitors and then cutting the cables. The new security brake kicked in. His gimmick helped build trust in an innovation that led to the development of modern cities the world over. “From New York to Johannesburg, to Geneva to Lisbon, this would have been impossible without the simple elevator that we get into probably every day without even thinking about it,” observed Dr Ricardo Leite, a Portuguese physician. “It had to start somewhere, to build trust in a new technology that could change the world.” Leite was speaking at the launch of Health AI, the Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health at a recent closed-door Geneva event that included leading members of Geneva’s international agencies and diplomatic corps."

• Health Policy Watch

"To keep up with what is expected to be fast-moving negotiations towards a new Pandemic Agreement, and changes to the International Health Regulations, we are trying to experiment with shorter updates from Geneva, in addition to our signature long-form analyses. We are calling this The Files Brief, to capture key turns in the current negotiations in global health. In this short edition, we bring you a statement by the Equity Group comprising 29 countries pushing for “response” measures during health emergencies."

• Geneva Health Files

"German mRNA vaccine maker BioNTech’s partnerships with vaccine manufacturing facilities in Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa will support the African Union’s ambition to produce 60% of the continent’s vaccine needs by 2040, the company told the World Health Summit. But Ayaode Alakija, former Chief Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria and World Health Summit Ambassador, cautioned that Africa needs “end-to-end manufacturing” not a “cut-and-paste model”.

• Health Policy Watch

"Hours before the release of the second draft of the Pandemic Accord on Monday, German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach told the World Health Summit that a pandemic agreement with “major limitations” on intellectual property (IP) rights protection will “not fly” for Germany and most of its fellow European Union (EU) members. “For countries like Germany and most European countries, it is clear that such an agreement will not fly if there is a major limitation on intellectual property rights,” said Lauterbach. “That is a part of our DNA … we need intellectual property security in order to invest into vaccines, invest into therapeutics, diagnostics, and so forth.”

• Health Policy Watch

"Unsalaried community health workers in dual-cadre programmes often face labour exploitation, potentially leading to inadequate health-care provision. Labour laws must be upheld and the creation of professional community health worker cadres with fair contracts prioritised, international funding allocated to programmes that rely on unsalaried workers should be transparently reported, the workloads of community health workers should be modelled a priori and actual time use routinely assessed, community health workers should have input in policies that affect them, and volunteers should not be responsible for the delivery of essential health services."

• The Lancet
• The Lancet - Comment

“I was held down, tied up, forcibly medicated and placed in a seclusion cell,” Jarrod Clyne of the International Disability Alliance told the international launch of a guide on mental health and human rights on Monday. This had happened in New Zealand “on the basis of a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, during a manic episode”, Clyne told the launch of the guide, which has been developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR)."

• Health Policy Watch
• WHO new guidance on mental health care

"In Ihrem Wirken für eine gesunde Welt tragen Sie zusammen mit der Geschäftsleitung die Gesamtverantwortung für die Umsetzung der Strategie und führen den Betrieb operativ. Sie stellen eine proaktive Kommunikation sicher und prägen eine konstruktive und integrierende Zusammenarbeit mit verschiedenen internen und externen Anspruchsgruppen. Sie optimieren Prozesse und Abläufe und sichern die Zukunft von SolidarMed. (...) Diese Rolle bietet Ihnen eine spannende, sinnstiftende und entwicklungsfähige Aufgabe in einem kompetenten, engagierten und internationalen Team mit flachen Hierarchien. Neben den erstklassigen Anstellungsbedingungen geniessen Sie auch eine inspirierende Arbeitsumgebung im Herzen von Luzern. Wir freuen uns auf Ihre Bewerbung bis zum 16. Dezember 2023 als PDF an bewerbung@kampahire.ch. Für weiterführende Informationen kontaktieren Sie Rosmarie Quadranti unter 079 865 66 11 oder rosmarie.quadranti@kampahire.ch .

• SolidarMed
• Download (pdf | 177 kB)

"About the project: Liminality is a research consortium across six countries conducting a multi-country, multidisciplinary research on Survival Strategies and Health Repercussions in Forced Displacement. The research project focuses on the gendered dimensions of forced displacement. (...) The research consortium is looking for qualified research assistants in Zurich or St Gallen to support the research. The Research Assistant will be responsible for the data collection and data management in line with the study protocol, timely transcription and translation of the data, supporting coding and analysis, and writing reports and publications, including presentation of novel research findings. If you are interested, please send an email to maya.sopory@graduateinstitute.ch with your application materials, including: • CV • Short motivational letter including availability.

• Geneva Graduate Institute
• Download (pdf | 470 kB)