People's policies for the health of the poor globally

Abstract

In this paper, we argue that the dominant role played by governments of the developed countries in global health policies is a critical but often an ignored factor in contributing to the lack of progress in global health. The solution to this challenge lies in efforts to 'democratise' global decision making and to argue for a greater say of the poor globally in policies affecting them. Although there are potentially many ways to achieve this, the paper proposes 'communitarian claims' as one way to have the voice of people globally involved and to make decisions about how best to allocate resources globally. It is argued that such claims can be advanced at a practical level through 'citizens' juries' as evident from the experience in Australia. That experience and with increasing evidence from elsewhere, there is a strong indication from communities of desires for a very different set of values to underpin healthcare than the Australian and other governments, in partnership with global institutions, deliver. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.