ADVOCACY AND ACTION
Communicating Research Results Effectively
Even most rigorous research will have little public health impact if not relevant, understandable, and usable by decision makers. Research "translation" is an iterative process—it involves engaging communities and stakeholders, building collaborative relationships across disciplines and sectors, and fostering long-term mutually beneficial partnerships.
Advocating for Analytic Literacy
Serving as a guest speaker at a major methods workshop on benefit-cost analysis (BCA) in global health and development, Dr. Goldie spoke from about why, how and in what ways benefit-cost analysis might prove to be a valuable tool for informing priorities in global health. She reflected on the role of academia to foster literacy across disciplines to strengthen competency in the next generation of analysts: “If you do not speak the language, you cannot be part of the conversation”. The two-day workshop was an important milestone to develop reference case guidelines for benefit‐cost analyses funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Human Rights in All Policy
Alicia Ely Yamin, human rights lawyer, spoke with Paul Farmer, Sue J. Goldie and others, who gathered for a symposium following the publication of her book, Power, Suffering, and the Struggle for Dignity: Human Rights Frameworks for Health and Why They Matter. Participants discussed pragmatic ways to instill human rights dialogue into the fabric of institutional policy, and how an academic institution can go beyond advocacy to more effectively catalyze action. Urging deliberative thinking about dignity, suffering, agency, and power, Yamin argues that “social change is possible...that we can all be agents of social change.” Check out the teaching pack on human rights produced by Yamin in collaboration with the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University.
Creating Spaces for Interdisciplinary Dialogue
The human rights event described above reflects an example of the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator’s mission-driven commitment to foster collaborative partnerships and create inclusive learning spaces for dialogue across sectors and disciplines. The example below, the Commission on Investing in Health, is another example. Faculty and fellows from the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator published several working papers to complement and extend the work of the Commission, contextualized recommendations to specific countries, such as Global Health 2035: The Afghanistan Context, and co-hosted workshops intended to provide venues to listen to divergent viewpoints.
Lancet Commission for Investing in Health
Prompted by the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Development Report, a Lancet Commission revisited the case for investment in health and developed a new investment framework to achieve dramatic health gains by 2035. The Commission's report has four key messages, each accompanied by opportunities for action by national governments of low-income and middle-income countries and by the international community. First, there is an enormous economic payoff from investing in health, making a strong case for both increased domestic financing of health and for allocating a higher proportion of official development assistance to development of health. Second, a "grand convergence" in health is achievable by 2035—that is, a reduction in infectious, maternal, and child mortality down to universally low levels, but will require aggressive scale up of existing and new health tools, and it could mostly be financed from the expected economic growth of low- and middle-income countries. Third, fiscal policies such as taxation of tobacco and alcohol are a powerful and underused lever that governments can use to curb non-communicable diseases and injuries while also raising revenue for health. Fourth, progressive universalism, a pathway to universal health coverage that includes the poor from the outset, is an efficient way to achieve health and financial risk protection. In addition to serving as a commissioner and co-author of the Global Health 2035: a World Converging within a Generation, Goldie's team published several working papers.
Global Health 2035: a World Converging within a Generation
Priority Research Areas for Basic Science and Product Development for Neglected Diseases
Initial Scan of Priority Research Areas for Public Health, Implementation Science and Innovative Financing
Global Cervical Cancer Prevention: Health and Economic Benefits of HPV Vaccination and Screening
Global Cervical Cancer Prevention: HPV Vaccination of Pre-Adolescent Girls
Read the Economists' Declaration on Universal Health Coverage
