Section outline

    • week 1 - lecture: what are global health challenges? 



      Hi everyone and welcome to the first week of the module! This is me above delivering my lectures to you from my kitchen, such are the times we are now living in! In this introductory presentation, I run through a few definitions and provide an overview of what you will be covering in the next couple of months.

      Aims and objectives:  

       

      By the end of this week you will be able to:  

      • Explain what constitutes a ‘contemporary’ global health issue;  

      • Define global health and critique established definitions; 

      • Review a number of contemporary global health issues in the media; 

      • Review your critical thinking ‘toolkit’.  

       

      week 1 - WEBINAR

      Please make sure that you read the assessment instructions for this module as we will be discussing the assessments during the seminar.  

       

      In today’s seminar, you will break into groups and identify a contemporary global health issue from the online print media. You will discuss in your groups why you think it is a contemporary issue and why it is important, and will feed the main points of your discussion back to everyone when we return to the plenary discussion. 

       

      Before the webinar, please look at the following global health page from The Guardian newspaper - https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/global-health   

      This website gives you a sense of which global health stories are in the news today, and which will dominate the news over the next 12 months.  

       

      week 1 TASKS

      Task 1: What is a ‘contemporary’ global health issue? Which issues will we cover in this module? If you haven't already, please watch my presentation above.  

       

      Task 2: Reading 

      Your first reading this week focuses on the assumptions and presumptions of dominant interpretations of global health. The first is a recent Comment article published in BMJ Global Health by Nicholas King and Alissa Koski. The authors define global health as ‘public health somewhere else’. What do they mean by that? 

       

      The authors touch upon the importance of decolonising global health is a growing movement, and there will be an opportunity to discuss this in detail in week 6. 

       

      Task 3: Contemporary challenges in global health. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlMyHIaVxmA  


       

      I’ve chosen a video here for you to watch. It’s a conversation with three highly influential leaders in global health: Dr. Michele Barry, director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health, Dr. Helene Gayle CARE President and CEO, and former Prime Minister of Norway, former DG of the World Health Organisation and United Nations Special Envoy, Dr. Gro Brundtland.  

       

      The first question Brundtland and Gayle are asked is what they consider to be the greatest global health challenge. As you listen, make a note of the issues they describe. Do they miss any issues that you think are significant, but which are not discussed?  

       

      From 39m into the video, there are questions from the audience. Below are the questions – are you convinced by the answers they give? Can you suggest others? 

       

      • How do you reduce poverty in the most impoverished and neglected countries? 

      • What are the keys to successful innovation in the field of public health? 

      • How do you manage the challenge of bad governance? 

      • Is technology (social media, the internet, etc) and its democratising potential important in resolving global health challenges? 

      • How did you get involved in this work and how do you enter the global health field? 

      • What are the indicators for knowing what success in global health looks like (20 years from now)?  

       

      READING


      Required reading  


    • Week 1 : what are global health challenges? - slides File
      Students must
      Mark as done

      These slides accompany week 1 live lecture

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    • Week 1 forum activity