Module Components

• Overview
• Assignments

Topics

• Globalization
• Global Health Actors
• Humanitarian Interventions

NURS 418/NRSG 609 – Essentials & Practice in Global Health Nursing

Introduction to Global Health

Module: Global Health Actors

Somehow, in this age of globalization, health and health care is elusive to so many.  How can basic and advanced health reach more of the world’s population?  To understand how to do global health is we must also explore the specific groups and key institutions that make up the existing global health landscape.  These are those individuals and organizations that informally and formally influence and set global policies and implement local and international programs and services that strive to address the negative impacts of globalization on health.  In this module, we examine the actors in global humanitarian and international development interventions: 

• humanitarian and emergency/disaster relief organizations
• multi-lateral, bi-lateral, international, and national institutions
• non-governmental and community-based organizations.
  
  

Please note: an organization could fall into each of the above categories. Humanitarian assistance in whatever form may seem like ‘the good and right thing to do’, even altruistic. However, there are many, different levels of target interests, philosophies, motivations, and politics behind each act (e.g. those of individuals (the personal-level), institutions, non-governmental organizations, governmental institutions (the national, bilateral, multi-lateral levels), and among religious and ethnic groups).

Some argue that definitions of what is “right” and “wrong” (good and bad) differ depending on your perspective (religious, cultural, etc.) while others argue that there are rights that should be accepted and defended as universal rights. You, as burgeoning global health professionals, must learn to recognize, investigate, critique, and seek to understand the reasons behind actions when analyzing global health initiatives or the humanitarian actors that carry out programs/interventions/research and before engaging in global health activities.

Here are two mini-lectures that provide an overview of Key Actors in Global Health:

• https://www.coursera.org/learn/global-health/lecture/LACqY/who-are-the-key-actors-in-global-health-part-1
• https://www.coursera.org/learn/global-health/lecture/xei0z/who-are-the-key-actors-in-global-health-part-2