Disinvesting in the future leadership of global health has already begun: What can we do about it?
Following the abrupt and significant funding cuts by the U.S. and increasing retreat by high-income countries from development aid for health, global health as a field requires reimagining and urgent solution building by all parties involved. In this essay, we aim to draw attention to an important and urgent challenge that deeply affects our collective future: the destruction of global health training opportunities and the weakening of future global health leadership. If we do not approach this challenge with a sense of urgency, global health research and training face irreversible shifts, weakening global preparedness to face future pandemics, address climate crisis, and achieve global goals such as universal health coverage or health for all. We outline existing best practices that we can build on and pathways to build better approaches in global health training.
Authors
- Canice Christian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2502-8718)
- Jane K. Fieldhouse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5450-0970)
- Inosha Alwis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6547-7449)
- Lucía Abascal Miguel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7142-8704)
- Shashika Bandara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1698-138X)
- Nelson Aghogho Evaborhene (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7712-6363)
Institutions
- University of Peradeniya (LK)
- Queensland University of Technology (AU)
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
- McGill University Health Centre (CA)
- Centre for Global Health Research (CA)
- Global Brain Health Institute (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- PLOS Global Public Health
- Published
- 2025-10-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0005310
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Global Health and Surgery
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.88