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Joining together to combat poverty: everybody welcome and needed

Andy Haines

Professor, Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School, London, UK

Iona Heath

General Practitioner and Chair, Intercollegiate Forum on Poverty and Health, Royal College of General Practitioners, London, UK

Fiona Moss

Editor, Quality in Health Care

Abstract

The International Poverty and Health Network was created in December 1997 after a series of conferences organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) with the aim of integrating health into plans to eradicate poverty. Its formation was a response to the evidence of the persistent and growing burden of human suffering due to poverty. This is a worldwide (members from 46 countries) network of people and organisations from health, business, non-governmental organisations, and government who seek to influence policy to protect and improve the health of the world's poor, particularly the poorest in all countries. The network urges that a balance must be struck between social development and growth in income; between the human and financial dimensions of poverty; and between redistribution and market reforms. Its aspiration is to achieve a balance between biomedical and social approaches; between community based health development and a response to individuals; between prevention of disease, promotion of health, and treatment; and between physical and mental health. The more people who join the greater the likely impact of the network.

This editorial has already been published in the BMJ (2000;320:1–2) and on Medscape and it is hoped that a version will appear in many other medical journals. International signatories appear on the BMJ's website, www.bmj.com.