Globalization and global health governance: implications for public health

Globalisation creates health disparities between its beneficiaries and losers. This paper explores the effects of globalisation on health equity, assessing the influence of the new architecture of global health governance on the response to global health challenges.

The paper underlines these findings:

• the Millennium Development Goals have put pressure on the global community to redress massive inequities in health across countries.
• this accelerated a transformation in the architecture of global health governance.
• the entrance of new actors, such as private foundations and multi-stakeholder initiatives, contributed to a doubling of funds for global health between 2000 and 2010.
• however, today the governance of public health is not solid, with diminished leadership from multilateral institutions and poor coherence in policy, which undermines the potential for sustainable health gains.
  

The author thinks that these trends pose new challenges and opportunities for global public health, which is centrally concerned with identifying and addressing threats to the health of vulnerable populations worldwide.

Recommendations contain:

• new models of organising public health education that take advantage of new information technologies and ease of travel to build learning networks across countries are needed.
• public health leaders must be alert to opportunities to engage with non-traditional stakeholders, as health is an increasingly vital component of international cooperation.
• analysing and sharing results of past health programmes and experiments can assist communities in choosing approaches that will work in their context and avoid propagating failed solutions.
  

The document concludes that innovating new ways for thinking about health challenges and addressing new partnerships are critical elements, if global health challenges of today and the future are to be met.