This co-written blog post has emerged from a series of conversations between the authors and grows out of reflections on the research experiences of Dr Ahmad in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has systematically written and implemented policies to envelop women in silence. Silences and camouflage now define and govern how women conduct their lives. […]
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Latin America: the underdog of research
During my undergraduate studies in Honduras, a professor told me, “Health professionals in hospitals are more useful than researchers because that is where the real demand is.” This sentence stuck with me and left me with a lot of questions… What role do researchers play in my country? And why is the curative approach […]
We are all accountable for making person-centered care a reality
Person-centered care (PCC) is essential to advance universal health coverage. It is an approach through which health is co-produced with care recipients, care providers, and communities and reflects and respects peoples’ needs and preferences. Health systems are human systems, which is why it is critical to shift from health systems designed around diseases toward […]
A story of field-worker bags from Jharkhand, India
Field-workers are the anchors of any large-scale field-based research, especially when there are house-to-house visits for anthropometry, symptom-screening for diseases, and counselling. Their contribution to these studies cannot be more emphasized. Researchers look at data they bring, try, and make sense of the lives and diseases of the research participants, report, publish, present in […]
Visa discrimination: moving beyond global health
Visa discrimination has recently become a major topic in global health circles. This is following a spate of discriminatory policies in 2022, which specifically targeted African health professionals being denied visas to global health conferences in the Global North. A recent article in BMJ detailed such cases leading to greater calls for hosting such […]
India’s rapid urbanization demands healthy urban planning: an opportunity to revive the WHO healthy cities approach?
India has been transitioning from rural to quasi-urban due to rapid urbanization over the last two decades and is expected to continue in the coming years. It is estimated that 43.2% of India’s population, i.e., 675 million people, will reside in Urban conglomerates by 2035 (UN-Habitat 2022). While urbanization has provided economic growth and […]
No visa, No worries! Making global health conferences accessible for all
Imagine you are attending a panel held by the largest conference in your field and none of the panelists show up. This was the scene at AIDS 2022, a conference held in Montreal this past July, by the biggest AIDS advocacy organization – the International AIDS Society (IAS). The scene was captured in a […]
Should Global Health institutions apply what they research, teach and advise on?
Essential workers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) won a brave campaign to be insourced, after keeping the School safe throughout the pandemic. It will be effective on 01 August 2022. Since the insourcing announcement was made, LSHTM has been reticent to negotiate their salary with the workers and to […]
Response to open letter on insourcing at LSHTM
This is a response to the ‘Open letter to London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine’ posted on the BMJ Global Health Blog on 11 July 2022. We are surprised and disappointed that members of the LSHTM community have put their names to a publication without first checking the factual accuracy and validity […]
Open letter to London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
The following is an open letter calling the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine’s (LSHTM) Senior Management to meet essential workers’ demands of fair treatment and pay, and to ask for the immediate annulation of disciplinary sanctions faced by some workers engaged in union activities and campaigns. Dear Professor Liam Smeeth, and Senior […]