The stages of international (global) health: histories of success or successes of history?
International health funders, leaders and researchers frequently cite 'successes' in this field as validation for past labours and justification for future endeavours. However, the question of what constitutes success - from both historical and contemporary perspectives - has been inadequately analysed. This paper reviews and periodises understandings of success in international/global health during the past century and a half, mapping out shifts and continuities over time. It then turns to the implications of these changing conceptualizations for current and future global health ideologies, strategies and activities. It concludes by arguing that historians of global health and policymakers need to interact further so that historians are exposed to the contemporary problems of global health and policymakers better understand the historical complexity of extracting 'lessons' from the past.
Birn
Anne-Emanuelle
AE
Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Department of Social Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. ae.birn@utoronto.ca
D014943:Global Health; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D007391:International Cooperation / Q000266:history*; D014944:World Health Organization / Q000191:economics / Q000266:history* / Q000458:organization & administration