COVID-19 represents the latest and most devastating example of the globalising spread of infectious diseases. Its destabilising effects, in the form of shortages of key healthcare resources ranging from hospital beds to essential medicines, were evident in the tragic visuals of strained state capacities at the local level and the world over. While there are immediate questions about the effectiveness of national strategies to manage COVID, there is a corresponding need to interrogate the enduring questions posed by the broader context of the system of global governance and public health.

 

The present system of global health governance is characterised by the existence of multiple custodians including nation-states, UN agencies, multilateral institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, multinational pharmaceutical companies, civil society, and non-governmental organisations working across the globe. The complexity of this system is compounded by tremendous overlaps in the roles that global health actors perform coupled with a lack of a clear and delineated structure of responsibilities. The resultant lack of meaningful coordination between actors has only widened the developmental divide between the Global North and the Global South.

 

Out of the chaos perpetuated by this existing mode of global health governance emerges a need to rethink the interstices between the Global North and the Global South. This not only includes engaging with the diverse and often conflict-inducing ways of framing the subject of health as, intermittently - a national security issue, a human right, or a global public good - but also to critically examine the power dynamics that constitute the existing character of North-South relations. How can we move towards a system that brings more global health equity to disadvantaged communities in the Global South? What characteristics of the existing mode of governance (legal frameworks and others) constraint the realisation of global health equity? What would a people-centric focus require in terms of the normative structure of global health governance?

 

With this backdrop, the Rethinking Economics India Network and the Young Scholars Initiative (South Asia  Working Group) are organising a conference as part of the REIN Annual Event. Towards this, we invite the submission of extended abstracts from researchers and policy professionals to present theoretical or empirical work on the state of global health governance and its implications for the Global South. 

 

The aim is to bring together researchers representing different disciplines and methodological approaches. Possible topics include impacts of globalisation and health, international health treaties and human rights covenants, international law, intellectual property rights and global health emergency, TRIPS, trade in healthcare technology, justice and global health, international agreements and observance in promoting health equity within and between countries, inequities in healthcare provisioning and consumption  (gender, caste, class etc.), analysis of health care markets, global health and poverty, inequality, medical access, mortality, population health, quality of life, redistribution, entitlements and regulation, health and foreign-aid, vaccine hesitancy, medical tourism, the role of federal governments during pandemics and solidarity campaigns for collective good. This list is not all-inclusive; authors are free to submit abstracts on other topics that may be of interest to the understanding of Global Governance and Public Health.

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All abstracts will go through a standard process of reviewing. Abstracts that are accepted for presentation at the conference will be published as conference proceedings and authors will be receiving a certificate of participation. Selected abstracts will be guided and mentored towards developing the research article/paper of 2500-3000 word length. We are looking at the possibility of publishing the scholarly articles into an edited volume, however, that would be contingent on the quality of submissions.

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Participants:

The conference is open to all. We encourage scholars from underrepresented backgrounds in economics and other disciplines to apply. We welcome submissions from women, scholars of colour and/or other marginalized identities, and/or scholars based in the Global South.

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Important Dates:

• Abstract submission deadline: 15 August 2021

• Announcement of the accepted submissions: 30 August 2021

• Submission of the first draft: 25 September 2021

• Conference: 2 October 2021

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All submissions are under review now. ​

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If you have any questions, please write to [india@rethinkeconomics.org] with the subject line “Query_REIN-YSI-SA_Conference 2021”.

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Organising Committee:

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Aneesha Chitgupi, YSI-SA

Arun B. Chandran, YSI-SA

Sattwick Dey Biswas, YSI-SA 

Afreen Faridi, REIN                                  

Divanshu Sethi, REIN

Dwayne Leonardo Fernandes, REIN

Sonal Raghuvanshi, REIN

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