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Learn more about IGCC's unique cross-disciplinary partnerships with:

Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories

Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy

Global Health Diplomacy

A Joint Project of

and the UC Institute on
Global Conflict and Cooperation


Project Background
March 2007 Conference Agenda
March 2007 Conference Participants
Working Papers and Abstracts

Background

Global health diplomacy may be defined as a political change activity that meets the dual goals of improving global health and maintaining and improving international relations abroad, particularly in conflict areas and resource-poor environments. (Link to background paper.) Health diplomacy training is needed to support the altruistic motivations of today’s health-sciences students, residents, scientists, and faculty and to prepare leaders in global health for the twenty-first century. Although there are historical precedents for health diplomacy (examples are found in early missionary work, colonial and post-colonial development aid, various private-public partnerships, and now the new global health philanthropies), we believe that the imperatives of globalization, global conflict, and domestic security call for further development of global health diplomacy as an academic discipline for our times.

Health diplomacy begins with a recognition that the most effective international health interventions are carried out ethically and with sensitivity to historical, political, social, economic, and cultural differences. Health diplomacy focuses on the interplay of health assistance, economic inequities, and the enlightened self-interest of nations. While encompassing much of the social science, humanities, political science, and international relations disciplines, health diplomacy requires new, interdisciplinary, pedagogical approaches. Tomorrow’s health professionals must grapple with the emergent problems of global health and with the challenges of diplomacy in an increasingly complex world. We believe that physicians, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, and researchers need to have skills to understand and deal with globalization, multilateralism, resource inequality, health disparities, and post-conflict health crises in order to help assure global peace and economic stability. These skills are not taught in standard health sciences curricula, but they bear directly on the success of global scientific cooperation and foreign direct assistance. New opportunities abound for global health cooperation through philanthropy, private sector collaboration, and revitalized multilateral organizations.

In addition, global health diplomacy relates directly to national security and sovereignty through good foreign service practices as well as through cooperative approaches to transborder health problems. Recent outbreaks of SARS, avian flu, and the threat of bioterrorism have galvanized interest and demand for training in health diplomacy. The globalization of biomedical research and the need to translate this research into cost-effective health interventions for poor populations also demands attention to approaches that are ethically, politically, and culturally sensitive to a multitude of inputs. We feel that health diplomacy can be a critical pathway to assure good global governance and sensible international relations both among the great powers and between these powers and the developing world. Health diplomacy can be a mechanism to avert conflict and to augment peace, altruism, economic progress, and international cooperation.

As government and non-governmental funding and investment expand in global health, the need for leadership, appropriate program development, culturally and ethically sound practices, and career development is clear. Health diplomacy cannot be left to chance training. To this end, IGCC and UC San Francisco Global Health Sciences (GHS) have begun a three-step project aimed at development of training activities across the health disciplines. The project is led by Dr. Thomas E. Novotny, UC San Francisco; Vincanne Adams, UC San Francisco; and IGCC Director Susan Shirk. Funding for project activities has been provided by UC San Francisco Global Health Sciences (GHS), the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the UC Office of the President.

Step One: An Agenda-Setting Workshop

UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Haile Debas of UC San Francisco's Global Health Sciences.

Health diplomacy is a “field in the making.” In their first activity, planners held a workshop to define core topics, develop priorities for training the next generation of health professionals, and examine pedagogical models, such as those presented to the Institute of Medicine for its Healers Abroad project.

The March 2007 workshop provided an opportunity for global health experts from epidemiology, the medical sciences, NGOs and aid agencies, and social scientists to present their ideas about health diplomacy in an open environment. Selected participants prepared short presentations focusing on three themes: knowledge, service, and pedagogy. Participants then met in breakout groups to discuss, critique, and respond to the issues raised. A position paper based on the meeting's conclusions is underway.

Step Two: A Global Health Council Panel

The workshop's findings will be presented during the Global Health Council annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in June 2007. A panel of experts will present the group's findings on global health diplomacy to an audience including, among others, representatives from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Congressional staff offices with equity in international relations. The model for teaching global health diplomacy also be rolled out. In addition, a pilot training program, designed to teach emerging leaders and practitioners about implementing global health in the field, will be announced.

Step Three: Model Summer Training Program

In Summer 2008, project organizers will launch a pilot Training Program in Global Health Diplomacy. The three-week residential intensive program will cover a broad range of issues, including international relations, cultural anthropology, history, international organizations, program planning and evaluation, and related fields. The target participants for this interdisciplinary program will be early-career professionals in both medical and social science/public policy fields, as well as more senior professionals who are readying themselves for careers in Global Health.

Such training might eventually extend beyond academia to government, for example within the Foreign Service Institute, the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, and the NIH Fogarty-Ellison Fellowship program. This project will bring government and non-government leaders and practitioners together to launch a new multi-disciplinary health discipline.

Sustaining the Vision

A longer-term follow-up for implementing the proposed training program in global health diplomacy might include development of one or more Centers of Excellence in Global Health Diplomacy, where research, curriculum development, leadership training, and evaluation projects could be integrated. A model for this might be the CDC-sponsored Prevention Centers programs at schools of public health.

Another model might be a foundation-supported Center for Health Diplomacy at the University of California with a coordinating function for other training and grant-making activities, much like the Robert Wood Johnson programs in tobacco control and clinical scholar training.

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