The field of global health is often thought of purely in medical or public health terms, but there are important geopolitical and policy dimensions of global health that underlie programmatic responses to global health challenges.

As health moves beyond its purely technical realm to become an ever more critical element in foreign policy, security policy, and trade agreements, new skills are needed to negotiate global regimes, international agreements and treaties, and to maintain relations with a wide range of stakeholders. This course focuses on health diplomacy as it relates to health issues that transcend national boundaries and are global in nature.

Who should attend? 

• Diplomats, policy advisors, managers and leaders working in government.
• Health Attaches.
• Professionals working in health, international relations, economics, management, international law, security, or whose portfolios intersect with global health
• Health and international relations professionals in departments of international health, ministries of health, and foreign affairs.
• Staff in international and regional organisations, NGOs, philanthropic organisations, universities and the private sector.
• Post-graduate level students of international health or international relations.

How attendees will benefit? 

After completion of the course, delegates will be able to: 

• Present the field of global health diplomacy, its history, recent development and key challenges.
• Identify and define key concepts in global health, global health diplomacy and global health governance.
• Discuss key cross-cutting issues of global health in relation to foreign policy, trade, climate change, human rights and other related disciplines.
• Explain the specific institutions and initiatives that are fundamental to current global health diplomacy activities and functions, and how these influence global health outcomes.
• Discuss the challenges facing health diplomacy and how they are being addressed by different groups and at different levels of governance.
• Summarize real-world examples where global health diplomacy either helped or limited global health outcomes, and explain the reasons for those outcomes.
• Analyse case studies and negotiation processes at the national, regional and global levels.
• Review examples of national and global health strategies.

• Introduction to the field of global health diplomacy and key challenges at the national, regional and global levels.
• Global Health Diplomacy, Evolution and History.
• Health and Foreign Policy.
• Global health diplomacy at the interface of health and foreign policy.
• Actors, Stakeholders and Interests in Global Health.
• The drivers of policy for global health diplomacy.
• Global Health Governance.
• The venues of global health diplomacy (WHO, UN, WTO).
• Key Lessons for Successful Global Health Negotiations.
• Policy Coherence at National Level.
• How is global health financed?
• Global health financing institutions.
• The possible contributions of finance ministers to health-related issues.
• Global health security.