From short-term engagements to meaningful and equitable global health partnerships

The struggle for global health equity is complex, often fueled by a desire for quick solutions. Though global health should be a broad, 'big-tent' endeavor, quite often it gets simplified to the immediacy of clinical medicine. Short-term global engagements in global health (STEGH), like medical missions and student trips, embody this impulse. These, like many other aspects of global health, have roots in the late 19 th century as a largely neocolonial pursuit of "international medicine" These may also be driven by availability of opportunities and push towards broader marketization of global experiences-not just by the need of the respondents, but also by the supply of these opportunities While these activities may come from altruistic intentions, that of 'hoping to help', they often create more problems than they solve