Framing Global Health

Welcome to Module 1.

In this module, you step back to examine the foundations of global health by asking some big questions. How did global health take shape? Who decides what counts as a global health problem? Whose knowledge is valued, and whose experiences are overlooked? Rather than starting with diseases or interventions, this module focuses on the ideas, histories, and power structures that shape how health problems are understood and addressed.

You will explore how global health is framed through different lenses, including security, technology, and moral obligation, and why those framings matter. You will examine how colonial histories continue to influence health systems, research agendas, and resource distribution today. You will also look at how public health models guide what we measure and what kinds of solutions seem possible.

The module introduces key tools of global health practice, including how population health is measured and how data can both reveal and obscure inequities. You will examine the social determinants of health and see how education, income, housing, nutrition, and inequality shape health outcomes long before clinical care is involved. You will also explore how power operates in knowledge production, from epistemic injustice to persistent North South asymmetries in leadership and funding.

As you move through the module, you are invited to reflect on how health is shaped not only by biology or behavior, but by history, politics, and power. The goal is to deepen your understanding of global health by asking how problems are defined, whose voices are centered, and what more equitable approaches could look like.

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Learning Objectives

After completing this module, you will be able to:

  1. Explain how global health problems are framed through securitization, technification, and moralization, and how these framings shape priorities, funding, and responses.
  2. Analyze how colonialism and its legacies have shaped health systems, governance, knowledge production, and resource control, and how these dynamics continue to influence global health.
  3. Compare major public health models, including biomedical, behavioral, political-economic, life course, intersectionality, and social-ecological models, and evaluate how they explain health outcomes and power.
  4. Analyze how social determinants of health, including education, income, nutrition, housing, water, and inequality, shape population health and health inequities beyond access to healthcare.
  5. Interpret key population health measures, including life expectancy, mortality, DALYs, and QALYs, and assess how data sources, stratification, and measurement choices affect what is seen or missed.
  6. Explain epistemic injustice and assess how testimonial and hermeneutical injustice influence whose knowledge is valued in global health research, policy, and practice.
  7. Critically examine how power operates in global health through governance, financing, and knowledge systems, and reflect on implications for equity and justice in practice.

Video: Framing Global Health (11 minutes)

In this lecture, you are introduced to global health as a field shaped not only by disease patterns, but by how problems are defined, prioritized, and acted upon. You will explore three common ways global health issues are framed, securitization, technification, and moralization, and how each lens influences what gets measured, funded, and addressed. The lecture also introduces problematization as a tool for questioning whose perspectives dominate global health agendas and whose remain invisible.

As you watch, consider: How does the way a health problem is framed shape the solutions that are pursued and the populations that are centered or overlooked?

Downloads: Video (28 MB), Audio(5 MB), Transcript

Discussion (20 minutes)

Welcome to the course! Please post a brief introduction to the forum using the following two prompts:

  1. Introduce yourself: Give a 1-sentence introduction of your professional background.
  2. Reflection: In 2–3 sentences, share one of the following:
    1. An overview of your current experience in global health.
    2. A specific challenge you are facing at work due to the shift in global health priorities over the last 12 months.

After posting, read through your classmates' introductions and reply to at least one person who shares a similar challenge or interest. Please note that in this sample course there is no access to the discussion.

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Video: Colonialism (12 minutes)

In this lecture presented by Melissa Mugambi, you examine colonialism as a historical process that reshaped economies, governance, and health systems in ways that continue to influence health outcomes today. You will trace how colonial rule altered decision making authority, defined who health systems were designed to serve, elevated certain forms of knowledge over others, and concentrated control over resources. The lecture connects these legacies to present day health inequities and institutional arrangements.

As you watch, consider: Which features of today’s health systems can be traced back to colonial structures, and how do these legacies still shape equity and access?

Downloads: Video (31 MB), Audio (5 MB), Transcript

Video: What Are Public Health Models & Why Do They Matter? (16 minutes)

Now that we’ve discussed how global health is framed, let’s look at the models we use to analyze and act on health problems. Models are like lenses: they shape what we see—and what we ignore. This introduces you to six key public health models, from the biomedical and behavioral models, to more critical frameworks like political economy, intersectionality, and the life course model. These models matter because they shape our understanding of what causes poor health—and what we imagine can fix it.

As you watch this lecture by Rabi Yunusa, ask yourself: Which models have shaped your own thinking about health—and which ones are new to you?

Downloads: Video (46 MB), Audio (5 MB), Transcript

Video: Social Determinants of Health (10 minutes)

Before you start this lecture on the Social Determinants of Health by Priyasha Maharjan, please keep one big idea in mind: health isn’t just about medicine or hospitals—it’s about the conditions we live in every day. Think about how education, income, and nutrition shape their health far more than a doctor’s visit ever could.

Downloads: Video (28 MB), Audio (5 MB), Transcript

Video: Measuring Population Health (12 minutes)

So how do we actually know if health is improving? What do we measure—and how does that shape our response? In this lecture by Jennifer Slyker, we’ll talk why it’s essential to break down data by race, income, gender, and geography to really see where inequities exist. As you watch this video, ask yourself: How do the tools we use to measure health shape what we pay attention to—and what we ignore?

Downloads: Video (32 MB), Audio (5 MB), Transcript

Reading: Epistemic Injustice (5 minutes)

Video: Confronting North-South Power Asymmetries (20 minutes)

In this lecture presented by Shashika Bandara from McGill Univeristy, you examine how historical and contemporary power imbalances shape global health governance, funding, and knowledge production. Drawing on examples from colonial medicine, modern aid systems, research practices, and global institutions, the lecture explores epistemic injustice, leadership, and allyship. You are invited to consider what it means to shift power toward more equitable, locally led approaches.

As you watch, consider: Where do you see power shaping decisions in your own work, and what would it take to meaningfully rebalance it?

Downloads: Video (35 MB), Audio (9 MB), Transcript

Video: Structural Adjustment Programs (14 minutes)

Steve Gloyd describes structural adjustment programs, or SAPs in this video. These economic policies were imposed by international financial institutions and drastically reshaped the health and education systems of dozens of countries, especially in Africa and Latin America. But why did these policies emerge, and who paid the price?

As you watch this lecture, ask yourself: How did these global economic policies prioritize markets over people—and what does that reveal about whose lives were valued?

Downloads: Video (53 MB), Audio (7 MB), Transcript

Reading: Module Summary (5 minutes)

In this opening module, you were introduced to global health as a field shaped not only by diseases and interventions, but by history, power, and the ways problems are defined. You began by examining how global health issues are framed through lenses such as securitization, technification, and moralization, and why those frames matter. You also explored problematization as a practice, asking who defines global health problems, whose perspectives dominate, and whose lives and experiences are rendered visible or invisible in the process.

You then turned to the historical roots of global health, tracing how colonialism reshaped economies, governance, and health systems in ways that continue to structure inequality today. By examining who made health decisions, who systems were designed to serve, whose knowledge counted, and who controlled resources, you saw how colonial power produced enduring patterns in health institutions and outcomes. This historical grounding set the stage for understanding why contemporary global health systems often struggle to deliver equity, even when technical capacity exists.

The module then shifted to the models and tools used to understand health in practice. You explored a range of public health models, from biomedical and behavioral approaches to political economic, life course, intersectionality, and social ecological models, and how each highlights different causes, responsibilities, and solutions. You examined the social determinants of health, focusing on education, income, nutrition, housing, water, and sanitation as foundational drivers of health outcomes. You also explored how population health is measured, reviewing indicators, data sources, DALYs and QALYs, and the importance of stratification. Across these lectures, measurement emerged not as a neutral technical exercise, but as a set of choices that shape what counts, who is counted, and how inequities are revealed or obscured.

Through the reading on epistemic injustice, you examined how knowledge itself is shaped by power. You explored how testimonial and hermeneutical injustice marginalize local expertise, how global health governance and funding structures reinforce imbalance, and how colonial legacies persist in research, publishing, and leadership.

Finally, you learned about how structural adjustment programs have largely favored elites and corporations by liberalizing markets and suppressing labor costs, while inflicting severe damage on public services, livelihoods, and social protections for the poor. Far from simply restructuring economies, structural adjustment programs have left a lasting legacy of weakened public institutions, deepening inequality, and heightened vulnerability for the world’s poorest communities.

These perspectives reinforced a central theme of the module: global health is not only about improving outcomes, but about interrogating systems, redistributing power, and expanding whose knowledge and experience guide action. This foundation prepares you to engage more critically with the political, economic, and institutional forces that shape health in the modules ahead.

Quiz (15 minutes)

Please note that in this sample course there is no access to the quiz.

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