​THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION FACES A DILEMMA BETWEEN PRIORITISING PEOPLE OR ECONOMY

This Saturday 12th November the World Health Organisation has officially started debating about the topic that has brought the countries together in these sessions of debate: health problems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Today’s discussions mainly revolved around malnutrition and HIV.

Undoubtedly, the most heated debate regarding malnutrition has been whether implementing new technologies to improve agricultural production is an adequate solution for a region like Sub-Saharan Africa. It is essential to keep in mind these countries’ situation when it comes to discussing which measures are suitable for them, as we are talking about extremely poor countries. The leaders of this debate were France, defending the substitution of workers by machines to increase agricultural production, and Argentina, which claimed this solution would only benefit developed countries. Moreover, Venezuela emphasised the fact that these countries mainly rely on the primary sector, which means implementing technology in agriculture will lead to several people losing their jobs.

Quoting Brazil: “Are we looking for the benefit for these countries or for developed countries?”. Analysing where each speech is coming from is essential for understanding who can benefit from it. Moreover, Nigeria stressed the need for immediacy: “We need solutions right now for people who are dying right now”.

However, “the conditions regarding education in these countries do not allow them to train citizens to become engineers”, as Argentina has stated. Meanwhile, Spain’s delegation has declared its willingness to collaborate by sending teachers to provide training. However, this newspaper cannot ensure the credibility of this statement, as we do not have any actual testimonies from Spaniards who are willing to leave their country.

Another subject matter has been the relationship between malnutrition and economy. China believes this issue does directly affect economy, leading to poor workers. Poland and Nigeria, which may share some kind of alliance as they consistently agree on the same points, both stressed the importance of “focusing on the quality rather than the quantity” when it comes to measures regarding malnutrition.

HIV has been the second main topic of today’s sessions. Among some others, social factors certainly have a great impact on preventing the disease, as the stigma around it still exists, which is directly related to “internalized homophobia”, as Brazil has pointed. Quoting Spain: “Discrimination still prevents people from going to hospitals and getting treatment”.

Although the treatment of HIV has also been a matter of consideration during today’s discussions, the focus was put on its prevention. On this matter, France has underlined the need for improving education and awareness about HIV. Furthermore, Venezuela encouraged the other countries to remember that, although prevention is important, many people do not know they are infected because of the lack of tests, which is a huge issue. Some countries agreed, like Polonia: “We need to focus on testing men in Africa because those who are infected and do not get tested continue to spread the disease”.

There were different perspectives about which part of the population should we focus on when it comes to HIV. On the one hand, Zimbabwe advocated for putting the focus on women, and eventually accomplished to open a debate on that topic. On the other hand, Venezuela, with the backup of some other countries like France, insisted on the need to talk about everyone affected and “not only about women and queer men”. Nevertheless, overlooking analysing which segments of the population are the most affected by a disease could lead to neglection.

In conclusion, these last debating sessions may offer a glimpse of hope as to achieving consensus on HIV prevention. Nevertheless, some disagreements between countries were not solved and they may never see eye to eye regarding certain matters. However, the mere fact that they are willing to be open to listening to suggestions and different approaches can give us hope about building a better future.