Global Governance and Public Health Vulnerabilities in the Global South
COVID-19 represents the latest and most devastating example of the globalising spread of infectious diseases. Its destabilising effects, in the form of shortages of key healthcare resources ranging from hospital beds to essential medicines, were evident in the tragic visuals of strained state capacities at the local level and the world over. While there are immediate questions about the effectiveness of national strategies to manage COVID, there is a corresponding need to interrogate the enduring questions posed by the broader context of the system of global governance and public health.
The present system of global health governance is characterised by the existence of multiple custodians including nation-states, UN agencies, multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, multinational pharmaceutical companies, civil society, and non-governmental organisations working across the globe. The complexity of this system is compounded by tremendous overlaps in the roles that global health actors perform coupled with a lack of a clear and delineated structure of responsibilities. The resultant lack of meaningful coordination between actors has only widened the developmental divide between the Global North and the Global South.
Out of the chaos perpetuated by this existing mode of global health governance emerges a need to rethink the interstices between the Global North and the Global South. This not only includes engaging with the diverse and often conflict-inducing ways of framing the subject of health as, intermittently – a national security
Global Governance and Public Health Vulnerabilities in the Global South
COVID-19 represents the latest and most devastating example of the globalising spread of infectious diseases. Its destabilising effects, in the form of shortages of key healthcare resources ranging from hospital beds to essential medicines, were evident in the tragic visuals of strained state capacities at the local level and the world over. While there are immediate questions about the effectiveness of national strategies to manage COVID, there is a corresponding need to interrogate the enduring questions posed by the broader context of the system of global governance and public health.
The present system of global health governance is characterised by the existence of multiple custodians including nation-states, UN agencies, multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, multinational pharmaceutical companies, civil society, and non-governmental organisations working across the globe. The complexity of this system is compounded by tremendous overlaps in the roles that global health actors perform coupled with a lack of a clear and delineated structure of responsibilities. The resultant lack of meaningful coordination between actors has only widened the developmental divide between the Global North and the Global South.
Out of the chaos perpetuated by this existing mode of global health governance emerges a need to rethink the interstices between the Global North and the Global South. This not only includes engaging with the diverse and often conflict-inducing ways of framing the subject of health as, intermittently – a national security issue, a human right, or a global public good – but also to critically examine the power dynamics that constitute the existing character of North-South relations. How can we move towards a system that brings more global health equity to disadvantaged communities in the Global South? What characteristics of the existing mode of governance (legal frameworks and others) constraint the realisation of global health equity? What would a people-centric focus require in terms of the normative structure of global health governance?
With this backdrop, the Rethinking Economics India Network and the South Asia Working Group are organising a conference as part of the REIN Annual Event. Towards this, we invite the submission of extended abstracts from researchers and policy professionals to present theoretical or empirical work on the state of global health governance and its implications for the Global South.
The aim is to bring together researchers representing different disciplines and methodological approaches. Possible topics include impacts of globalisation and health, international health treaties and human rights covenants, international law, intellectual property rights and global health emergency, TRIPS, trade in healthcare technology, justice and global health, international agreements and observance in promoting health equity within and between countries, inequities in healthcare provisioning and consumption (gender, caste, class etc.), analysis of health care markets, global health and poverty, inequality, medical access, mortality, population health, quality of life, redistribution, entitlements and regulation, health and foreign-aid, vaccine hesitancy, medical tourism, the role of federal governments during pandemics and solidarity campaigns for collective good. This list is not all-inclusive; authors are free to submit abstracts on other topics that may be of interest to the understanding of Global Governance and Public Health.
Important Dates:
**Abstract submission deadline: 15 August 2021
Announcement of the accepted submissions: 30 August 2021
Submission of the first draft: 25 September 2021
Conference: 2 October 2021**
The abstract word length should 750-800 words.
REIN x YSI Conference Presentations – 2 October 2021, at 2:30 – 4:30 PM IST
- Govindpuram Suresh, PhD Scholar, IIT Tirupati, India
- Ilyana Syafiqa Binti Mukhriz Mudaris, Research Associate, Khazanah Research Institute, Malaysia
- Asmita Verma, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Centre for Society and Policy, Indian Institute of Science, India
- Anandita Pathak, Researcher, Youth Collaborative Network Guwahati, India
Joining Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwsd-ihrTwjHNAN0-QM0mVbn9hN33qdWtFj
The conference plenary "Rethinking International Institutions: A Global South Perspective" – 2 October 2021, at 5:30 – 7:00 PM IST
Confirmed for the plenary – Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Isabella Weber and Jayan Jose Thomas (as speakers) and Lebohang Liepollo Pheko (as the chair and moderator).
Joining Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88900088836
Rethinking Economics India Network Team:
Sonal Raghuvanshi, REIN
Dwayne Leonardo Fernandes, REIN
Divanshu Sethi, REIN
Afreen Faridi, REIN
If you have any questions, please write to india@rethinkeconomics.org with the subject line “Query_REIN-YSI-SA_Conference 2021”.
You can also contact us at southasia@youngscholarsinitiative.org
South Asia Working Group in social media; Twitter: @ysi_sa; Facebook: @ysi.southasia
