BRICS: More Wealth Must Mean More Health!

I was not an official delegate of the summit. However I managed to travel to Durban as part of a delegation of civil society advocates for increased financing for health from various countries across Africa.

Some of the organisations represented included the following among others: Global Youth Coalition on HIV and AIDS, (GYCA), Southern Africa Regional Programme on Access to Medicines and Diagnostics (SARPAM), Community Initiative for Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria (CITAM+), Kenya AIDS NGOS Consortium (KANCO), International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), Network of African People Living with HIV for Southern Africa (NAP-SAR+), Eastern Africa National Networks of AIDS Service Organizations (EANNASO) and the World AIDS Campaign International (WACI).

Our plan as civil society was very simple. In essence we envisaged a situation whereby we would be given a chance to implore the participants at the official proceedings to start to seriously consider increasing funding for access to public health especially for the millions of poor citizens in their respective countries.

Prior to the start of the BRICS summit, we as civil society activists had consulted extensively among ourselves and eventually adopted a public statement that called upon the BRICS countries to increase funding for health in the budget of their respective countries.

In the said statement, the civil society noted with great concern the fact that the BRICS members seem to all fall short on health financing in their respective countries and on South-South collaboration on HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria research and bilateral and regional TRIPS.

The same statement the civil society in Africa argued that one of the most effective ways of fighting the three pandemics across the world was by investing in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

They also called upon the BRICS countries to invest in active efforts that would ensure that the forthcoming replenishment meeting for the Global Fund for HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria would be a resounding success. The replenishment meeting is due to be held in Sri Lanka before the end of September 2013.

And so it happened that on the morning of the 26th March, I joined the small group of African civil society delegates who drove over to the venue of the summit at the International Convention Centre, next to the luxurious Hilton hotel in the central business district of Durban.

We had managed to print a lot of copies of our public statement and also some flyers calling for the BRICS countries to start investing more in financing health. Our plan was to distribute the documents to some of the official delegates at the meeting and also the journalists covering the event.

However we had not adequately prepared ourselves for what we saw when we got to the vicinity of the BRICS summit venue. The place seemed to be largely deserted and very serene. Normally one would expect it to be a hive of activity but this was not the case.

We soon realised as to the reason why the venue looked to be so empty and quiet. The place had suddenly been transformed into a no-go area for the public. In fact, the venue of the BRICS summit easily reminded me of a maximum security prison complex.

The reason was there for all to see!

The organisors of the event had managed to seal the venue from any form of public access. They had built a steel fence around the venue that had a thick concrete basement. The said fence had managed to seal off at least two road lanes on all the streets surrounding the venue.

In the final analysis, this meant that the deliberate seclusion of the BRICS from the prying eyes of the rest of the world was utterly complete.

This in effect symbolised the total isolation that public health and other social issues have experienced since the advent of BRICS. Public health, just like other social aspects such as education has largely played an auxiliary role in the mainstream dynamics of the BRICS countries to date.

This is a very dire situation when one considers the alarming fact that most of the state funded social systems in the BRICS countries are increasingly struggling to accommodate the ever increasing needs of the poor masses.

Every year, the gap between the rich and the poor in the BRICS countries continues to widen. The gini co-efficient rate statistics continue to paint a grim future for the majority of the citizens living in the BRICS countries.

Worse still, state funding to address social problems in the BRICS countries has continued to be dwarfed by other aspects such as those that are security related such as the army, intelligence and the police.

There is therefore an urgent need for all the BRICS countries to start prioritising investment in the social sector. The vision of BRICS to generate more wealth must also mean more good health for its poor majority citizens. Besides, health is wealth too!

• Mr. Daniel Molokele is the Civil Society Pact Manager for SARPAM and is based at Johannesburg, South Africa.