Shifting power in global health research: a checklist for research funders

Colonial legacies continue to shape who decides, leads, and benefits from global health research. Funders play a pivotal role in this landscape, determining which settings, problems, and approaches are prioritized in research. This paper introduces a checklist for research funders aimed at tackling some of the structural and political dimensions of inequity in global health research. Grounded in a framework that understands 'decolonising global health' across three intersecting dimensions (colonialism within global health, colonisation of global health, and colonialism through global health), the checklist is structured into six strategic areas: (1) shifting power within the health research ecosystem; (2) prioritising health equity in the research portfolio; (3) redressing historical underinvestment in health research systems; (4) addressing potential conflicts of interest that could undermine equity; (5) equitably distributing the outputs of global health research; and (6) reporting on research outcomes and impact. Acknowledging that decolonization would require a full dismantling of the existing aid/funding system, the checklist attempts to broaden the present discourse on decolonising global health research by placing the onus on funding agencies to adopt and implement measures to address structural inequities within the funding ecosystem. While the checklist will require piloting and further refinement, meaningful change within research funding agencies must be accompanied by broader social, political, and epistemic transformations in the field of global health.