The life and contribution of Professor David Sanders through his publications.

Professor David Sanders died in August 2019. He leaves a long legacy of analysis and teaching on global child health and public health particularly in relation to poverty and the roots of ill health, and how to tackle them. Sanders believed that the determinants of health lay in the social conditions of the population and that these had to be improved by social change and working at the grass roots rather than by top-down medical treatment with drugs; he was a strong proponent of primary healthcare as originally established by WHO and supported the appointment of community health workers who would be responsible to the local community. His work is covered in this article through a review of significant books of which the best known is The Struggle for Health and his research in the field.

Rights, justice, and equity: a global agenda for child health and wellbeing.

Worldwide challenges to child health and wellbeing are rapidly becoming existential threats to children and childhood. Inequities, armed conflict and violence, nuclear proliferation, forced migration, globalisation, and climate change are among the global issues violating children's rights to optimal survival and development. Child rights-based approaches will be required to enhance the response to the civil-political, social, economic, and cultural determinants of these global child health issues. In this Viewpoint, we present a global agenda for child health and wellbeing as a blueprint for the practice of paediatrics and child health in the domains of clinical care, systems development, and policy formulation. This global agenda is grounded in the principles of rights, justice, and equity and can address the root-cause determinants of health. The 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is a relevant moment to recommit to shared goals for children's health and wellbeing.

Access to healthcare for children in Palestine.

Currently, 5 million Palestinian refugees live in Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and around 40% of these are children. Mortality rates for Palestinian children are comparable to neighbouring Arab countries but the speed of reduction has faltered in recent years. Morbidity is greatly affected by the occupation which has increased violence towards children, mental health problems and poor nutrition, particularly in Gaza which is experiencing a health crisis. Access to healthcare for children in Palestine is constrained as a result of the requirement for visas to travel into Jerusalem where specialist hospitals are sited, by difficulties with ambulance transfers, by shortages of equipment in hospitals and by lack of trained staff. Palestinian health workers are developing new initiatives in healthcare and show a high level of resilience, despite the very considerable stress affecting most citizens.

Child health in the West Bank: Experiences from implementing a paediatric course for Palestinian doctors and nurses working in primary care.

Child health issues are of high importance in the occupied Palestinian territories, where half of the population are children. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have developed a comprehensive paediatric training programme for primary healthcare providers with the aim of improving child health in the area. The course has taken 8 years to develop with the pilot running in 2005-2007 and is now being extended to other centres in the region. In this article, we describe the process through which this course has developed, some of the difficulties faced and the final teaching programme as it has evolved. A number of lessons have been learnt, over the years, which are of potential value to others designing similar teaching programmes. Its greatest strength lies in the partnership developed with local paediatricians, which encourages us to believe that sustainability has been achieved. Evaluation confirms that the course is meeting the needs of local doctors and nurses and improving their paediatric skills. Although developed specifically for the occupied Palestinian territory, our experience offers a process and design for a teaching programme that could be adapted for use in other countries around the world.