Unit Introduction

Question 1

Global health

Answer 1

“Global health is public health. Public health is
global health for the public good.”
~ Fried, et al. 2010

Question 2

Global health as public health somewhere else

Answer 2

“Why practise public health somewhere else (rather than at home)? How do we justify practising public health somewhere else? Who has the expertise to practise public health somewhere else and to whom are we accountable when we do so?

… While the aspirations behind much global health work are no doubt justified from an ethical perspective, the imperative to practise public health somewhere else can often produce unintended—and in some cases harmful—consequences.”
~ King and Koski, 2020

Question 3

Dichotomies photo

Answer 3

Question 3

International/global development

Answer 3

“While global health is now seen as a stand- alone sector, it is very much just one part of the overall global
development sector which has been heavily impacted by the politics of aid. It is important not to create such a distinction between the two. After all, health also encompasses and is impacted by other variables such as
income, access to education, housing, gender equality and even justice.”
~ Khan et al. 2022

Question 4

“haves’ and ‘haves not’

Answer 4

Question 5

How useful is it to refer to LMICs?

Answer 5

South Africa is an LMIC, GNI = US$6750
Burundi is an LMIC, GNI = US$230
GNI of South Africa ~ 30 x GNI of Burundi

Question 6

1. Governance structures

Answer 6

United Nations (includes World Health Organization, UNICEF, etc)
World Trade Organisation, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Latin
American Development Bank, African Development Bank
EU, ASEAN, SAARC, etc.
But also the many, many agreements, treaties, summits, international committees, agencies, collaboration
efforts, global standards, etc.

Answer 6

Interconnected and interdependent, a borderless world

Question 6

income classificartion table photo

Answer 6

Answer 7

Globalisation is a process
Something that has been happening and is still happening

Globalisation is a complex process that has been happening for centuries, which has affected different people differently, for better and for worse, in ways that we don’t
fully understand

Question 7

History and hierarchies

Answer 7

Most terms used to differentiate countries in global health programming are based on racism and colonialism, and create a false hierarchy

Classifications assume capabilities/advancement/superiority – higher income countries assumed to have capacity regardless of issue
Not everything is about income – education, equality, housing, justice
How did countries become resource rich vs poor? History matters!

We ask you do not to use these terms; they are widely considered racist, colonial and outdated:

– First/third world
– Developed/developing

Be conscious when using language, and we will be, too

Answer 8

“Globalization describes the process of creating networks of connections among actors at intra- or multicontinental distances, mediated through a variety of flows including people, information and ideas, capital, and goods.

Globalization is a process that erodes national boundaries, integrates national economies, cultures,
technologies and governance, and produces complex relations of mutual interdependence.”
Gygli, et al. 2019

Question 9

the three changes within globalisation

Answer 9

Spatial changes – Globalisation affects how we perceive and experience physical or territorial space

Temporal changes – Globalisation affects how we perceive and experience time

Cognitive changes – Globalisation is profoundly influencing how we see ourselves and the world around us

Question 10

table showcasing the features of globalisation

Answer 10

Question 11

2. Markets

Answer 11

Lowering of trade barriers
Elimination of price controls
Free-trade agreements
Emergence of global trading systems
Changes in markets, transport, and communication in the last few decades has massively increased trading of
goods and services between countries
Neoliberalism: market-oriented reform policies: eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets,
lowering trade barriers

Question 12

5. Cross-cultural interaction

Answer 12

Exchange of knowledge, innovation, cultural ideas, values
Cultural uniqueness is perhaps decreasing
Cultural homogenization is perhaps increasing

Answer 12

“International trade has taken place for several thousand years. However, the most dramatic transformation
of the size and composition of trade has been during the past twenty-five years.

For the first time in history, developing countries have broken into global markets for goods and services
other than just primary commodities.
Until around 1980, developing countries’ role was to export raw
materials. Now, 80 percent of developing countries’ exports are manufactures, and service exports are also mushrooming.”

Paul Collier, 2007

Question 13

4. Mobility

Answer 13

An “increase in the extensity, intensity and velocity of movement”
People -> Travel (air, land, sea)
Goods -> Shipping

Question 14

3. Communication / information

Answer 14

Communication has become easier, quicker, cheaper ( paper -> printing press -> telephone -> email -> social
media

Question 15

6. Environmental changes

Answer 15

“Global warming and ecological degradation are a product of the rapid carbon-intensive economic growth that has underpinned globalization.

…we will have to change the ideas and institutions that govern globalization, displacing markets and turning to developmental goals that are democratically planned, long-term, and scientifically informed. Markets must work in the service of achieving these priorities.”

Green, 2020

Question 17

Neoliberalism and its effects

Answer 17

Neoliberalism

– Market-oriented reform policies: eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets,
lowering trade barriers

– Privatization of public economic sectors or services, the deregulation of private corporations, sharp
decrease of government budget deficits, reduced spending on public works

The Washington Consensus / Structural adjustment programs – a set of economic policy prescriptions promoted for crisis-wracked countries by institutions such as
the IMF and World Bank – general shift towards free market policies in the 1970s

Now considered by many to have led to growing inequality

Question 17

The future of globalisation

Answer 17

“Globalisation is not an unstoppable force. Our key challenge is to create socially and environmentally
sustainable forms of globalisation that provide the greatest benefits and least costs, shared more equitably
than is currently the case.”

Lee, 2004

Think about what this means for global health.