Opportunities and Challenges in North-South and South-South Global Health Collaborations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The AFREhealth-CUGH Experience (as Reported at the CUGH 2021 Satellite Meeting).

Quentin Eichbaum,Jean B Nachega,Abigail Kazembe,Judith N Wasserheit,Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde,Peter H Kilmarx,Nadia A Sam-Agudu,Judy Khanyola

doi:10.5334/aogh.3440

Abstract

Sustainable and equitable partnerships and collaborations between the Global North and Global South (as well as within the Global South) have been aspirations (if seldom achieved) of the “global health” endeavor over the past couple of decades. The COVID-19 pandemic led to global lockdowns that disrupted international travel and severely challenged these partnerships, providing a critical space for self-reflection on global health as a discipline. One major global north-south partnership is that between the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth) and the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). This article reports on a recent Satellite meeting of the AFREhealth-CUGH Working Group (ACWG) at the CUGH 2021 virtual conference in March 2021 that provided insights on North-South and South-South global health partnerships, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors describe challenges and opportunities for research and education in these partnerships (as discussed at this ACWG Satellite meeting), and implications for the field of global health going forward as we emerge from the pandemic.

Highlights

South-South collaborations among low- and middle income countries (LMICs) independent of the high income counties (HICs) of the Global North? [1] Is the Global South quite as dependent on the Global North as the latter has presumed, and what do these presumptions tell about the power dynamics of coloniality, the need to decolonize global health partnerships and, more broadly, about systemic racism and structural violence? The COVID-19 pandemic brought these questions into focus at a meeting in March this year between two major global health North-South partners – The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) and the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth)
We report on this Satellite meeting at the CUGH 2021 virtual conference that provided insights on
Established in 2016, the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth) is a pan-African organization that emerged from the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI)

Summary

Introduction

Opportunities and Challenges in North-South and South-South Global Health Collaborations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The AFREhealth-CUGH Experience (as Reported at the CUGH 2021 Satellite Meeting). The COVID-19 pandemic brought these questions into focus at a meeting in March this year between two major global health North-South partners – The Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) and the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth).

Results

Conclusion