CMH 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: World Health Assembly, Poliomyelitis Eradication, World Health Organization
Collaboration in Global Health
• Collaboration is an essential global health concept
o Needs to be practiced by those who are learning global health
o Partnership, collaboration and teamwork are essential for the practice of global health
• Development and implementation of solutions to global health challenges often require
global collaboration
o A global health challenge refers to any health issue that affects multiple countries
such as AIDS or Obesity
o Also affected by transnational determinates such as climate change, urbanization, and
poverty
o Global health solutions like eradication of diseases
• Collaboration works like a mountain climbing team hooked together to support each other in
case of a fall
o Collaboration is essential to reach the top of the mountain
o Communication ensures success
o Major successes are: eradication smallpox, immunizing 80% of the world’s children,
eliminating polio in the America’s, treating 46 million people for “river” blindness
• Elements of successful collaboration
o Partnership pathway
▪ Before reaching the peak of the mountain, the mountaineers complete a
number of challenging tasks in each stage of their climb
Who are the Actors in Global Health? What is a Global Health System?
• World Health Organization is the United Nations agency focusing on public health since
1948
o 4 separate phases for WHO
▪ PHASE 1: 1948-mid 70’s Focused on technical matters and to provide
programmatic assistance to country members, it focused on specific diseases
as a strategy to reduce morbidity and mortality, like malaria and small pox
▪ PHASE 2: 1970s-1980s. Focused on primary health care and health equity,
based on a broad notion of humanitarianism. Period of the Alma-Atta
Declaration of health for all.
▪ PHASE 3: 1980s-1990s. Promoting the privatization of health care systems
▪ PHASE 4: 1990s- Emphasizes the interrelationships between health and
economic development, political stability, and international stability.
o Member countries are represented in the World Health Assembly, which is the central
governing body for decision making and budget approval.
• The World Bank is the international financial institution of the United Nations with the goal
of reducing poverty
o Provide loans to low-income countries
o Most important intergovernmental organization working on global health issues
o Two major goals are to end extreme poverty, and to promote shared prosperity
• Global Health Initiatives have emerged to provide large amounts of aid to specific health
interventions
o Since the 90s
o Global fund to fight AIDs, malaria, and TB
o Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations
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