Global health
The term Global Health stands for a new context, a new awareness and a new strategic approach in matters of international health. Its focus is the impact of global interdependence on the determinants of health, the transfer of health risks and the policy response of countries, international organizations and the many other actors in the global health arena. Its goal is the equitable access to health in all regions of the globe.
Kickbusch, Ilona working definition of global health for the Fulbright New Century Scholars Program 2001/2002
Ilona Kickbusch has significantly contributed to shaping the new field of global health (*.pdf). She brings a unique mix of practice through her positions at the World Health Organization and her academic work. Sine 2008 she is the director of the global health programme at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. More details on the programme can be found under graduateinstitute.ch.
She advises the International Division of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health and chairs the annual meeting of heads of international affairs of ministries of health of OECD countries, hosted in Glion by Switzerland.
European Perspectives on Global Health
Ilona Kickbusch was engaged with the European Foundation Center to explore the contribution of European Foundations to the global health efforts. In November 2006 this group launched the “European Perspectives on global health – a policy glossary." which has gained significant attention. A number of meetings and debates on global health in Brussels, Geneva, Madrid - have followed the launch of the glossary. These discussions have led to the proposal for a European Council on Global Health, due to be launched in 2009.
Academic affiliations:
Ilona Kickbusch is the director of the global health programme at the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies Geneva, Switzerland.
She served as Professor and Director of the division of global health, Department of Epidemiology and Public health, Yale University 1998 - 2004.
She served as the first distinguished scholar leader of the Fulbright New Century Scholars program which in its initial year focused on "Health in a Borderless World". Between 2003-2005 she regularly conducted the workshops on global health for the Training Program in International Health of the Pan American Health Organization. She has also conducted and contributed to a number of summer seminars in global health with a focus on global health governance and global health diplomacy. She continues to lecture widely on global health and was appointed adjunct professor at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. She has taught global health at the Hertie chool of Governance, Berlin, Germany.
Five Global Health Action Areas
She has proposed five key action areas for global health:
- Health as a global public good
- Health as a key component of global security
- Health as a key factor of global governance of interdependence
- Health as responsible business practice and social responsibility
- Health as global citizenship
From charity to rights: proposal for five action areas of global health, April 2004; J Epidemiol Community Health, 2004:58, 630-631
Select readings:
- Moving Global Health Governance Forward: forthcoming in Making Sense of Global Health Governance – A policy perspective. Editors: Buse K, Hein W, Drager N (eds.), Palgrave 2008
- Governing Interdependence (Foreword) in: Global Health Governance and the Fight against HIV/AIDS . Palgrave 2007
- Global Public Health. (with B. Seck) In: Douglas et al (eds) Challenge and Controversy in promoting Public health. Sage in association with the Open University, London 2007
- Der Umgang mit entgrenzten Gesundheitsproblemen: Gesundheit - eine neue globale Dynamik Bulletin Medicus Mundi 103/2007
- The need for a European Strategy on Global Health. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 2006; 34: 561-565 (*.pdf)
- European perspectives on Global Health: A Policy Glossary 2006
- From charity to rights: proposal for five action areas of global health, April 2004; J Epidemiol Community Health, 2004:58, 630-631 (*.pdf)
- The development of international health policies: accountability intact? Social Science and Medicine, 51 (2000) pg 979-989
