Richard Horton, editor in chief of The Lancet, writes a weekly column 'Offline' for the journal. Below is an extract from this week's issue, highlighting the work of the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) (a HIFA supporting organisation).
Offline: Sustainable development is broken and needs repair
Richard Horton
Published: October 22, 2022DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)02029-3
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... Authoritarian regimes are tightening their grip—suppressing freedoms, repressing minorities, and violently putting down protests. Democracies feel fragile, brittle, uncertain how to respond.
Yet good work continues. Founded in 1988 by Professor Sir Eldryd Parry, the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) is a charity dedicated to the vision of a world where everyone, everywhere, has access to quality health care. THET believes that by educating and training health workers in low-income and middle-income countries, in partnership with volunteers across the UK medical community, progress can be made. THET works in ten countries in Africa and Asia. Led by Chief Executive Officer Ben Simms, the charity argues that volunteering for global health activities is an important path to improved wellbeing (when as many as one in five doctors are considering leaving the profession). THET's work is a revelation. Health is not a product dispensed by donors or drug companies. Health is a quality created within communities. THET embeds itself in those communities, forming virtuous collaborations that change the trajectory of people's lives. One example from THET's annual conference last week: Gaunima Manandhar, a nurse and field researcher in Nepal, who described her work in the national kidney centre and the challenges she faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Long may THET continue to thrive.
Between these macro-level fractures and micro-level inspirations sit the Sustainable Development Goals. While the 17 goals remain essential objectives for human survival, sustainable development itself is broken...
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Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Global Coordinator HIFA, www.hifa.org neil@hifa.org
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