Menteeship as power: Global health must Rethink how it grows its leaders

Within global and public health practice, emerging professionals navigate cross-cultural, power-laden systems shaped by donor influence, colonial legacies, and entrenched hierarchies that stifle mentorship’s transformative potential [1]. Although often framed as a collaborative alliance for mutual growth [2], mentorship remains largely mentor-centric, concentrating power and success in established figures and fostering dependency on mentor agency, access, and authority. This approach is not tailor-fit for today’s volatile realities. Evidence from low- and middle-income country programs shows that meaningful growth hinges on the mentee’s ability to negotiate these asymmetries [3]. In these settings marked by linguistic diversity, multi-generational teams, and transnational norms, such self-agency is indispensable. We therefore center “menteeship” within the alliance, as a disciplined practice of self-agency, strategic learning, and ethical reflexivity within power-sensitive ecosystems [1]. We also identify common pitfalls, offer a practical toolkit, and outline its operationalization.