Inter Press Service - November 17, 2000
Cheryl Goodenough

He said that people should be at the centre of health care systems and criticised primary health care for giving little attention to the demand of the people for health services.

Nyazema said that African's lives are "in the hands of health systems inherited from colonial administrators" and that there were growing inequities between and within the health systems of African countries.

African countries needed to face up to the challengers of implementing an effective public health programme, he said, providing access to essential medicines and achieving a strong national, regional and continental partnership in the field of health development.

According to Nyazema, health systems in Africa were required to play a vital role and should take into account the impact of HIV and Aids on society. He said that by 2010, the life expectancy was expected to be about 33 years.

He called for the strengthening of "genuine people centred initiatives" and said that there was the potential to improve every component of the health system. "A lot of people on the African continent have not been heard, have not been listened to," he said.

Weaknesses in the system, said Nyazema, included poor structure, inefficient organisation and poor funding. However, he said that there were "very highly skilled dedicated people working at different levels in the systems".

Nyazema said that government should take part in the "stewardship of health systems". He also encouraged dialogue involving public and private sectors and the government.

Encouraging delegates at the conference to play an active role in society, Nyazema said that rather than calling on Consumers International to make representation to African governments, people should make sure that they are represented at every level of the process.

"We are the government," he said.

He warned against turning health into a commodity, but said that elements of the United Kingdom's national health service, such as the patients charter, could be useful for consumers.

Health and pharmaceuticals adviser of the Consumers International Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Dr K. Balasubramaniam said that no country could ever provide to all its citizens a health care model that makes available all that technology can provide.

However, he said that governments had to ration health care and in doing this, health care systems decided who would live and who would die.

According to Balasubramaniam, equity should be the guiding principle in making such choices. The adviser said that there appeared to be no evidence that the quality of care provided by private institutions was higher than that found at public health facilities.

More than 650 leaders from the international consumer movement attended the week-long conference which ended on Friday. The theme of the congress was "Consumers, Social Justice and the World Market" and the aim was to determine new strategies at the national and international levels to enable a fair and equitable social and economic environment within which consumers are empowered to exercise their rights.

It was the first time that the conference has been held in Africa and Consumers International president Pamela WS Chan said that this reflects the growing interest in consumer policy, consumer protection and consumer empowerment across the continent and the growing strength of its consumer movement.

Consumers International is a non-profit organisation that was founded in 1960 in the Netherlands as the International Organisation of Consumers Union. It is a federation of consumer organisations representing one of the largest constituencies among all international non- governmental organisations. It has a membership of more than 260 organisations in almost 120 countries. The world congress is held every three years.

Hosted by the South African Department of Trade and Industry, the conference was a venue for plenary sessions on social justice and global rules, consumer rights and the world market, and partnership, accountability and globalisation. Workshops covered topics including changing economies, consumer organisations working in difficult circumstances food security and safety health and pharmaceuticals, sustainable consumption, consumer policy and the internet, consumer education, consumer organisations in the future and enforcement of consumer law and standards.

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