Globalization And Health Inequities In Latin America

This book critically analyses the influence of international policies and guidelines on the performance of interventions aimed at reducing health inequities in Latin America, with special emphasis on health promotion and health in all policies strategies. While the implementation of these interventions plays a key role in strengthening these countries’ capacity to respond to current and future challenges, the urgency and pressures of cooperation and funding agencies to show results consistent with their own agendas not only hampers this goal, but also makes the territory invisible, hiding the real problems faced by most Latin American countries, diminishing the richness of local knowledge production, and hindering the development of relevant proposals that consider the territory’s conditions and cultural identity. Departing from this general analysis, the authors search for answers to the following questions: Why, despite the importance of the theoretical advances r egarding actions to address social and health inequities, haven’t Latin American countries been able to produce the expected results? Why do successful initiatives only take place within the framework of pilot projects? Why does the ideology of health promotion and health in all policies mainly permeate structures of the health sector, but not other sectors? Why are intersectoral actions conjunctural initiatives, which often fail to evolve into permanent practices? Based on an extensive literature review, case studies, personal experiences, and interviews with key informants in the region, Globalization and Health Inequities in Latin America presents a strategy that uses monitoring and evaluation practices for enhancing the capacity of Latin American and other low and middle-income countries to implement sustainable processes to foster inclusiveness, equity, social justice and human rights. p/pp

This book critically analyses the influence of international policies and guidelines on the performance of interventions aimed at reducing health inequities in Latin America, with special emphasis on health promotion and health in all policies strategies. While the implementation of these interventions plays a key role in strengthening these countries' capacity to respond to current and future challenges, the urgency and pressures of cooperation and funding agencies to show results consistent with their own agendas not only hampers this goal, but also makes the territory invisible, hiding the real problems faced by most Latin American countries, diminishing the richness of local knowledge production, and hindering the development of relevant proposals that consider the territory's conditions and cultural identity. Departing from this general analysis, the authors search for answers to the following questions: Why, despite the importance of the theoretical advances r egarding actions to address social and health inequities, haven't Latin American countries been able to produce the expected results? Why do successful initiatives only take place within the framework of pilot projects? Why does the ideology of health promotion and health in all policies mainly permeate structures of the health sector, but not other sectors? Why are intersectoral actions conjunctural initiatives, which often fail to evolve into permanent practices? Based on an extensive literature review, case studies, personal experiences, and interviews with key informants in the region, Globalization and Health Inequities in Latin America presents a strategy that uses monitoring and evaluation practices for enhancing the capacity of Latin American and other low and middle-income countries to implement sustainable processes to foster inclusiveness, equity, social justice and human rights. & nb sp.

Despite living in a 'globalized' world where advances in medicine, technology and science come at an ever-increasing pace, there exist staggering inequalities in health. Even as we celebrate new pharmaceutical developments, access to already-existing medicines is hindered by economic and political barriers for poor people around the world. Critical but accessible, Global Health Inequities questions taken-for-granted assumptions, showing how breakthroughs in biomedicine alone cannot address inequities in health. The book's analysis of theory and empirical work elucidates key debates and highlights the most significant challenges facing global health today, including the growing burden of chronic non-communicable diseases and the persistent injustice of neglected tropical diseases. Fernando De Maio identifies the need for sociological analysis in global health, drawing together research from public health, sociology, anthropology and related fields, in order to expand the scope of the medical gaze towards a more holistic and structural perspective of health inequity.

This book explores the legacy of the Latin American Social Medicine and Collective Health (LASM-CH) movements and other key approaches—including human rights activism and popular opposition to neoliberal governance—that have each distinguished the struggle for collective health in Latin America during the twentieth and now into the twnety-first century. At a time when global health has been pushed to adopt increasingly conservative agendas in the wake of global financial crisis and amidst the rise of radical-right populist politics, attention to the legacies of Latin America’s epistemological innovations and social movement action are especially warranted. This collection addresses three crosscutting themes: First, how LASM-CH perspectives have taken root as an element of international cooperation and solidarity in the health arena in the region and beyond, into the twenty-firstcentury. Second, how LASM-CH perspectives have been incorporated and restyled into major contemporary health system reforms in the region. Third, how elements of the LASM-CH legacy mark contemporary health social movements in the region, alongside additional key influences on collective action for health at present. Working at the nexus of activism, policy, and health equity, this multidisciplinary collection offers new perspective on struggles for justice in twenty-first-century Latin America. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Global Public Health.

This edition originally published: 2017.

The sociology of health and illness is a rapidly growing field. Yet, as a field, it has suffered from a remarkably limited perspective dominated by scholarship produced in the global north. Scholars in the sociology of health and illness have been late to enter debates in global health and have generally failed to learn lessons from work originating in the global south. To begin to address this limitation, this edited collection features notable contributions from Latin American scholars exploring key issues, including sickle cell disease in Brazil, cancer and Chagas disease in Argentina and reproductive health in Mexico. This collection, offering a snapshot of the rich and nuanced research being conducted in the region, offers readers valuable lessons. It is our argument that Latin American health sociology has much to offer the larger field of sociology – both for what it can teach us about Latin America in and of itself, and for what this field of scholarship can teach us about health and illness as broadly defined. This collection challenges readers to think about the global nature of health inequalities. Rich in empirical data and theoretical substance, this book is an essential collection for readers interested in understanding the sociology of health and illness. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Health Sociology Review and as individual papers in Global Public Health and Critical Public Health.

This publication is the result of a collaborative effort between the Pan American Health Organization and the WHO Collaborating Center for International Health at the University of Texas Medical Branch. The chapters are based on the proceedings from a seminarworkshop held in Galveston Texas in 1998. The objective of this forum was to examine the impact of the economic globalization process and technological change on health trends in the Region of the Americas and even more specifically to explore how civil society groups can influence the formulation of healthy public policies and monitor equity in terms of both the health situation and the distribution of health care resources. This publication addresses a wide range of issues affecting health in the global economy including various types of economic organization and potential dangers the world faces as a new century begins. It centers on experiences opportunities and risks in the Americas and on the value of health in human development and of international and regional integration processes in the formulation of a new global economy. It includes articles analyzing the impact of economic reform policies on health in general as well as monographs written from the perspective of civil society groups in specific countries. The variety of viewpoints and lessons learned in this publication will be of use to decision-makers health and development experts and emerging civil society groups in Latin America and the Caribbean and can guide them in better addressing the enormous risks facing all sectors of society as a result of globalization by enabling them to take advantage of the tremendous potential this process affords.