Globalization and Health

<p><em>Globalization and Health</em> is a pioneering transdisciplinary journal that situates public health and well-being within the dynamic forces of global development. We are dedicated to publishing high-quality, original research exploring how globalization processes affect global public health through their impacts on health systems and the social, economic, commercial, and political determinants of health. <br/> <br/> We embrace policy, health systems, political economy, international relations and community perspectives. Single-country studies are welcome if they highlight global/globalization mechanisms and/or relevance to global-level policy discourse and decision-making.</p> <p>The journal includes sections dedicated to a broad range of topics, including:</p> <strong>Section </strong> <strong>Description </strong> Development aid, humanitarianism, and health <p>Development theories and development assistance have been fixtures on the global health landscape for decades, most recently with adoption of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Considerable controversies continue to surround health development assistance, including the complex forms it takes (vertical, diagonal, horizontal), the lack of consistency over time, disbursements driven by donor interests rather than need, high transaction costs of poor donor coordination, a ‘charity’ rather than ‘entitlement’ approach, the rise of global philanthropies, and the lack of coherence between donors’ aid and their international trade/macroeconomic policies. In recent years, the role of micro-financing has been advanced as a key development strategy, although it remains controversial; and ‘social impact investing’ (where private investors finance projects with global social/public good outcomes, but also with the expectation of profit) is inserting a market logic into previously humanitarian notions of assistance or obligation. </p> <p>Papers submitted under this section will explore all forms and underlying theories of economic development and financial transfers from richer to poorer nations, and how these affect health outcomes, health systems, progress towards the SDGs and targets and impacts on social/structural determinants of health. </p> Cross-Border Threats to Health <p>The evolving nature of infectious disease threats with the potential to cross geopolitical boundaries including, among other topics, novel zoonotic outbreaks with pandemic potential, the possibility of a non-state actor developing bioterrorism capabilities, and the emerging threat associated with the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Examples of topics include:</p> analysis and discussion of measures taken to identify/mitigate/control cross-border spread of infectious disease (including but not restricted to COVID-19) reflections on differences between countries in policy, strategy, and operational implementation of programs to address disease outbreaks with an emphasis on transferable lessons analysis/commentary on current IHR and pandemic accord (INB) processes, including a focus on differing country (member state) positions and geopolitical interests in pandemic control analysis/commentary on global financing platforms (bilateral, multilateral) for pandemic preparedness and response studies of cross-border cooperation in all aspects of cross-border infectious disease management (prevention, preparedness, mitigation, vaccines, therapeutics, medical supplies, surveillance, data-sharing) analysis and discussion of other cross-border chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear disease threats <p>Papers on research and financing efforts to reduce the burden of infectious disease regardless of cross-border importance are also welcome, provided they address how globalization is influencing both disease burden and research and financing measures. </p> Trade, investment and commercial determinants of health <p>The increasingly interconnected and interdependent global economy and the dynamic nature of trade across borders have important implications for health everywhere. Economic policies for the past four decades have largely embodied neoliberal agendas that are subject to increasing empirical, ethical, and theoretical scrutiny, with widely accepted concerns over their impact on inequality, poverty, and environmental damage. Economic integration and trade and investment liberalization are defining features of contemporary globalization, first creating, and now revamping, global supply chains, creating both health opportunities and risks. How trade and investment treaties impact health outcomes within and between countries continues to be politically and empirically debated. A related outcome of global market integration is the increased size and power of transnational corporations, where a few often dominate in different economic sectors, from food and drinks products, to banking and finance, to extractive industries, to health technologies including pharmaceuticals. Of particular concern is the rise in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), ‘vectors’ (social/societal determinants) for which include such globalization-related pathways as trade (and trade treaties), foreign investment (and investment treaties), and economic growth and urbanization associated with global economic integration. These ‘commercial (or corporate) determinants of health’ describe the policies and practices of private actors engaged in the production and marketing of unhealthy commodities (tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods and beverages), or in extractive industries that create health damaging environmental impacts. </p> <p>Papers submitted under this section will explore these economic and trade-related health topics, and provide research, commentary and discussion needed to inform future health-equity enhancing macroeconomic policies and trade and investment rules. Papers will also explore the related power and influence on health exerted by the policies and practices of multinational and transnational corporations. </p> Climate change and environmental health <p>Ecosystems are heavily impacted by globalizing processes: climate change, resource depletion, biodiversity loss, pollution or, more positively, sustainable agriculture and renewable energy initiatives, with complex feedback loops affecting human health. Sustainable development has become the dominant theme of the SDGs, while broad-based and more recurrent ecological crises keep global environmental issues high on the international policy agenda. Preventing, mitigating, and adapting to the climate crisis is now of existential importance. </p> <p>Papers submitted under this section topic examine pathways by which globalization processes (e.g., trade, investment, consumption-driven economic growth, extractivism, and other anthropogenic activities) shape health outcomes via pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, water security, food security/insecurity, and other ecosystem transformations. Papers should also address the equity dimensions of the causes and consequences of globalization-related changes in environmental health risks and interventions. </p> Global governance, foreign policy and the geopolitics of health <p>Global governance describes intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder engagement in setting health policies and promoting accountability and transparency at a supranational level. Some of the institutions involved are health specific (e.g., the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and UNICEF), others have multiple agendas (e.g., World Bank), while others have non-health agendas that nonetheless affect health outcomes within and between countries (e.g., the World Trade Organization, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, and United Nations Development Program, to name a few). Several have treaty-making authority with direct or indirect global health implications. The re-emergence of powerful global philanthropies and the rise of global public-private partnerships pose governance challenges. Government engagement in global health governance is shaped by their foreign policy preferences. How health is placed and framed within countries’ foreign policies has become of topic of global health research often described as ‘global health diplomacy.’ Geopolitics, in turn, captures diplomatic or forceful efforts to influence or exercise power at international scales (global and regional) that embody a country’s economic or political ambitions. </p> <p>Papers submitted under this section will examine both global governance opportunities and risks through studies of the creation of and health impacts of governance structures and their power politics and conflicts of interest; regulatory regimes or framework conventions; voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives; and/or progressive taxation policies or agreements. Papers will also explore governments’ health and foreign policy positions, processes of intergovernmental negotiations, coherence (or incoherence) between differing foreign policy goals, how different global health actors work to place health higher as both a domestic and foreign policy priority, and the relationship between countries’ geopolitical interests and their health foreign policy framing. </p> Health Systems and Policy Research <p>At a global level, international institutions, donors, grants, and conditional loans are increasingly influencing the financing and organization of health systems in much of the world, with implications for equity in access to care. There is a renewed global push for universal health coverage but lack of agreement on how it should be funded or administered. Private financing for health systems in many countries is rising; there is a critical shortage of human resources for health; out-of-pocket payments continue to push people into ‘medical poverty’; and the high costs of new medical technologies or therapeutics too often available only to the few pose a challenge to appropriate funding levels for comprehensive primary health services essential to the many. </p> <p>Papers submitted under this section will explore how globalization-related processes are affecting the development of national and regional health systems, with a focus on how such systems improve health equity in terms of access, coverage, and financing. We are not accepting articles on health systems that do not attend to how they are being affected by globalization. </p> Migration, mobility and health Migration, the movement of people across political jurisdictions, has long been an axiomatic element of globalization, both old and new. The increased flows of refugees and internally displaced populations today, however, rank amongst the most critical political issues facing nations and international governing institutions. With population densities and resource demands increasing, and with larger numbers of the ‘Global South’ seeking access to the ‘Global North’, xenophobic sentiments are stirred, with increases in gendered, ethnic, and religious discrimination. Governmental, intergovernmental and international humanitarian efforts struggle to find ways to intervene to protect the health of affected populations. At the same time as borders are increasingly closed to some migrants and refugees, they are increasingly open to ‘economic’ migrants and highly skilled individuals, including health workers. The flows of such individuals from poorer to richer countries has been argued as exacerbating global health inequities (although not all agree that it does), even as patients with the financial means are able to cross borders to seek medical care, posing both risks and benefits to both home and destination countries. Papers submitted under this section will focus on all forms of international mobilities, their enablers and barriers, and the role played by globalization processes in their dynamics, and in how they increase or reduce inequities in global health. <p>We publish original research (max 8000 words excluding references) and commentaries (max 3000 words excluding references), as well as evidence reviews (max 8000 words). We no longer accept bibliometric analyses.</p> <p><em>Globalization &amp; Health </em>is an open-access journal and actively encourages submissions from authors in all world regions and from junior scholars. <br/> <br/> <strong>Please note:</strong> <strong>This is a speciality journal that focuses on globalization-related aspects of health. It does not publish global or national disease epidemiological or health care/system studies unless these contain specific analyses of how globalization-related processes inform the outcomes of the studies. It no longer publishes bibliometric studies and will only consider scoping and systematic reviews presenting novel research and analysis. A greater part of submitted papers are rejected due to being out of scope, including descriptive Global Burden of Disease studies, as these do not pertain globalization processes that explain trends in disease burdens. <br/></strong></p> <p><em>The journal does not accept pre-submission enquiries. Authors are advised to follow the submission guidelines carefully when preparing their manuscripts.</em></p>