Abstract
Recognising global health as a rapidly emerging policy field, the German federal government recently released a national concept note for global health politics (July 10, 2013). As the German government could have a significant impact on health globally by making a coherent, evidence-informed, and long-term commitment in this field, we offer an initial appraisal of the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for development recognised in this document. We conclude that the national concept is an important first step towards the implementation of a coherent global health policy. However, important gaps were identified in the areas of intellectual property rights and access to medicines. In addition, global health determinants such as trade, economic crises, and liberalisation as well as European Union issues such as the health of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are not adequately addressed. Furthermore, little information is provided about the establishment of instruments to ensure an effective inter-ministerial cooperation. Finally, because implementation aspects for the national concept are critical for the success of this initiative, we call upon the newly elected 2013 German government to formulate a global health strategy, which includes a concrete plan of action, a time scale, and measurable goals.
Highlights
To date, German governmental institutions have paid little attention to the concept of global health, which is an emerging policy field [1]
The authors welcome the launch of a first national concept document for global health politics entitled Globale Gesundheitspolitik gestalten Á Gemeinsam handeln Á Verantwortung wahrnehmen (Shaping Global Health Á Taking Joint Action Á Embracing Responsibility Á 10 July 2013) [5]
In line with other countries that have already launched national global health strategies Á such as Switzerland (2006), the United Kingdom (2008), Norway and Japan (2010), Sweden (2011), as well as the European Union [6] (EU) Á with the release of this document, the German federal government expresses its commitment to advancing health and wellbeing on a global scale
Summary
The global health concept of the German government: strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. We identified three major strengths relating to important issues on the global health agenda: Firstly, a clear and unequivocal commitment to Universal Health Coverage (UHC) [8] based on the ‘human right to health’ (HR2H) [9] approach, including health systems strengthening; equality and equity in access to quality health care; protection against catastrophic health expenditure [10]; and the acknowledgement of the regulatory role of states in this context. Policy coherence with regard to the WHO General Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property (GSPoA) and its follow-up, which are central for the problem of adequate incentives for medical research, remains unaddressed [13] In this particular context, the government’s concept falls short of the EU council conclusions [6]. Without institutional innovations the laudable commitment to UHC and HR2H might remain mere rhetoric, since major powerful determinants of health [17] are outside the scope of development politics or health politics
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