Ashti A. Doobay-Persaud
Published: 2024-10-01
Total Pages: 170
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Global Health, a field of study, research and practice defined in 2009 with precursors in international health and development, is currently reckoning with itself. The field has well-intended goals emphasizing collaboration and dialogue between population health, public health, clinical care, and other disciplines to address socioeconomic determinants of health, and employing interdisciplinary approaches to address health inequities wherever they exist. Despite these lofty ideals, there are concerns that the field itself has historically served to reinforce rather than deconstruct colonialism and power imbalances. At this point in time, the field has evolved toward a vision of a community of practice between institutions across the income spectrum (HIC, LMIC, LIC) working in bidirectional and multidirectional ways to develop staff, stuff, space, systems and strategies to eliminate health disparities. However, with deeply rooted colonial assumptions, racism, elitism, and other forms of bias underlying institutions and individuals, initiatives operating under the auspices of Global Health are all too often antithetical to the pursuit itself.