This year’s University of Otago Foreign Policy School in Dunedin was focused on the challenge of managing global health in a world still grappling with the aftermath of a worldwide pandemic.
Prof Ilona Kickbusch, of Geneva, presented at the event and explained to audiences the approach that international actors have towards global health is changing significantly.
"We are in a very political period of global health, and a period where countries of the global south want to have an equal voice and an equal say."
Global north and south were terms used to group together nations characterised by economic and social development.
Countries with high development, such as New Zealand, were in the global north whereas less developed countries were in the global south.
She said this was an era where the intersection of politics and healthcare were here to stay and the goal was not to depoliticise organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), but to instead work to manage the politicisation.
"We have moved away from member states looking for a consensus on issues, and instead political issues, such as the Ukraine and Palestine conflicts, start to intersect their decisions."
Political marketing was also the new norm, with member states vying to host WHO summits with the end goal being to show other international actors they are a good political actor, no matter the state of their own internal public healthcare.
Another change was the growing voice of the global south, who historically had been held down under the hegemony global north countries such as the United States and United Kingdom historically held in the global health space.
Hegemony refers to the dominance and authority of one international power over others in the same realm.
She said donor multilateralism, which is where aid is given from donor countries to organisations such as the World Bank to distribute, was being brought into question.
"These are organisations with loads of money who may bring goods such as vaccines to these countries, typically global south countries."
She said global south actors wanted to be able to do vaccine manufacturing and distribution internally rather than relying on external sources, and wanted support in developing their own healthcare industries, workforce and systems to bring them on to a level field as the global north and give them the agency to be able to retain their talented healthcare professionals.
"They want, and need, assurances that countries within the global north were not going to continue to poach their healthcare professionals."
The 58th foreign policy school was held from Friday to yesterday and included speakers from New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Taiwan, Fiji, and staff from the University of Otago.
