Be-cause health is the global health platform that connects organisations and experts in Belgium and internationally, and stimulates collaboration.
In 2001, the ITM organised a conference in Antwerp on Health Care for All (HC4All) that resulted in a short and powerful declaration of priorities for health care. This HC4All declaration served as a foundation for Be-cause health since the network was created in 2004. The values of the declaration remain topical. However, there is a need to review the HC4All declaration as a reference text, or at least add a number of new priorities. It is clear that in 20 years the world has changed. Our planet is reaching its social, economic, and ecological limits. This taskforce took on the task to work on a new basic text for the Be-cause health network.
In 20 years the world has changed. Our planet is reaching its social, economic, and ecological limits. Climate crisis, warfare, increasing migration, economic turmoil, a debt crisis in many LMICs and a pandemic as well as infodemics, among other things, challenge the emerging responses for the health and health care goals of communities, countries, and international institutions.
We started the review process by compiling an overview of potential topics from documents relevant for our platform today. This overview was presented at the 2022 General Assembly to collect input from the members. However, it soon became clear that this exercise exceeds the platform, and that we need to broaden the discussion beyond the platform members. In December 2023, Be-cause health, together with the Emerging Voices for Global Health and Health Systems Global networks launched a call to invite researchers, health workers, health practitioners, policy makers, health activists and members of grassroot organisations worldwide, to submit a pitch for a short story of success or a promising failure in global health.
The aim of the call was to draw upon the lessons learned and conclusions from the stories to draft a declaration which reaffirms the right to Health for All in the current context of poly-crisis and uncertainty. The declaration should be internationally supported as widely as possible by academic and civil stakeholders, policy makers and governments.
Healthcare for All declaration (2001)