Physicians as Agents of Social Change in Emerging Democracies

CMAP has begun to explore how it might encourage physicians and professional medical organizations to promote progressive health policy and social change, looking first to South Africa. Physicians and activists are eager to explore what might be done to build and maintain a cadre of physicians engaged in civic action. Almost everyone agrees that the profession has the capacity to exert significant leadership; the open question is how best to promote that capacity. CMAP confronted these issues directly in a February 2004 meeting in Durban, South Africa with representatives from the United States, South Africa, Brazil, Amnesty International, and the Ford Foundation.