Created in 1976, Saúde em Debate (Health in Debate) aims to disseminate studies, research and reflections that contribute to the debate in the field of collective health, especially those dealing with issues related to policy, planning, management, work and evaluation in health. This Special Issue 1 of 2020 continues this tradition through a collection of articles on a range of themes–from indigenous struggles and mobilizing around extractive industries to global health governance–that illuminate the global and local health activism of the People’s Health Movement.

From Saúde em Debate:

Welcome to this special supplement of Saúde em Debate, focusing on the work of the People’s Health Movement (PHM), a global network of health activists and organisations working across borders to make the 1978 vision of ‘Health for All’ a reality. This special edition is an initiative of the Brazilian Center for Health Studies (Cebes) and the Latin American Association of Social Medicine (Alames) to call for global action for the universal right to health. A wide variety of analyses and stories of PHM activism are shared in this edition of Saúde em Debate. These articles illustrate the connections between local health needs and global political economy and the ways in which health activists are addressing local needs in order to contribute to building a global movement.

You can see the work of health activists from PHM-North America highlighted in the following articles:

Contributors to this issue discussed PHM-NA’s project collecting case studies on successful movements against privatization of health services in the article “Resisting privatization and marketization of health care: People’s Health Movement’s experiences from India, Philippines and Europe” (p. 37).

PHM-Canada and PHM-USA activists who are part of the PHM extractive endustries circle joined the article “Connecting the right to health and anti-extractivism globally” (p. 100), which portrays the inconsistency of development policies that fund health/right to health with extractivism. They describe examples of resistance to extractive industries in different countries and types of governments.

Browse the table of contents below.

You can access the full issue (open access) here.