Globalisation and health governance

This module introduces you to the scope, origins and definitions of the key concepts of global health, globalisation and global health governance. The module begins by reviewing different definitions of global health, and how global health is distinguished from the related fields of public health and international health. We also begin to explore globalisation as a world-wide phenomenon and discuss various drivers and forms of global change and their relationship with globalisation processes. You are then introduced to the concept of governance before contrasting ideas of global health governance and governance for global health.

This module begins by exploring the ongoing debates regarding the positive and negative impacts of globalisation. Learners are then introduced to conceptual frameworks for understanding the connection between globalisation and health, settling on a model which explicitly visualises that globalisation affects the institutional, economic, social-cultural and ecological determinants of population health, and that the globalisation process mainly operates at the contextual level, while influencing health through its more distal and proximal determinants. Learners are then presented with two argumentative techniques used in advocacy before practicing these rhetorical skills to evaluate and formulate arguments for the positive and negative impacts of globalisation.

This module takes learners through a very rapid and concise history of international health cooperation and global health governance, before outlining the current global health governance landscape and identifying all the main actors. We then examine the consequences of globalisation for the state as a political entity and highlight the crucial role played by the state within the structure of global health governance. We then introduce learners to the key intergovernmental institutions and non-government actors currently engaged in global public health, including the WHO, the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.