SGLK13001U Global Health: Policy, Politics and Partners

Volume 2013/2014
Education
MSc Programme in Global Health - compulsory
Content

The course will introduce students to current and emerging global health issues and the hazards and determinants impacting human health and disease, ranging from individual to society. Some of the determinants examined include the changing role of different stakeholders, health policies, political issues, trade agreements, tobacco regulations, economic development, environmental state, epidemiological and climate change, violent conflicts, globalization of health work force, and cultural and social factors at local, national, regional, international and global levels. Issues of governance, particularly international cooperation, the international health architecture, and the role of international NGOs, will also be covered as well as issues of human rights and equity.

The emphasis throughout is on interconnections. Thus, the course will introduce the student to the subject of global disease patterns: the global burden of diseases; the double burden of diseases including the interaction among different diseases; and the transitions and trends in demography and epidemiology and how that changes our approach to health.

Theories and practices concerned with global health policy will be discussed, as will questions of how international policies, trade agreements, and global public goods concepts affect global health.  Medical anthropology and key issues such as equity, the division of resources, and poverty will be discussed. Students will gain knowledge on methods used to search for and evaluate data. They will also be introduced to, and learn to critically evaluate and choose between, a number of data sources which may be used to gather data to analyse global health issues; including building up and accessing local and global databases.

The students will be introduced to the World Health Organisation’s six building blocks to making an efficient health system. The emphasis will not be only on what are the problems and what have been the solutions applied so far, but on identifying the gaps and discussing what could be possible future solutions, given the changing societies.

This part of the course furthermore introduces a health and human rights approach. Human rights are regarded as fundamental to public health work. Human rights abuses can dramatically affect health, health can be dramatically worsened when human rights are ignored, and health and human rights can act synergistically with each other for the improvement of global health. Thus the students will learn about the conceptual foundations of the health and human rights theme and how this framework can be applied in order to better understand and combat health problems in a globalized world including problems of social inequalities in health and inequities in access to health care.

Learning Outcome

On completion of the course, students should be able to:

  • Exemplify knowledge of, and be able to discuss, the main international actors and global health policies of international organisations and political systems; further able to discuss good governance and democracy as well as political ideologies, welfare state systems and citizenship.
  • Illustrate knowledge of organisation analysis and show the ability to discuss problems regarding the political process and agenda setting.
  • Demonstrate analytical skills through the use of relevant international databases on health and health care.
  • Describe and discuss the concepts of equity and human rights in relation to global health.

 

The course will include a combination of lectures, student activating sessions and group work based on an assignment with supervision. The students will be introduced both to theories and empirical material on all of the course topics.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Exam
  • 4
  • Exercises
  • 45
  • Lectures
  • 36
  • Preparation
  • 121
  • Total
  • 206
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination, 4 hours under invigilation
The students will answer one or more questions and must write a maximum of six pages.
Aid
Only certain aids allowed
All, except devices allowing for external communication.
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
More than one internal examiner
Criteria for exam assesment

To achieve the maximum grade of 12, the student must be able to:          

  • Exemplify knowledge of, and be able to discuss, the main international actors and global health policies of international organisations and political systems; further able to discuss good governance and democracy as well as political ideologies, welfare state systems and citizenship.
  • Illustrate knowledge of organisation analysis and show the ability to discuss problems regarding the political process and agenda setting.
  • Demonstrate analytical skills through the use of relevant international databases on health and health care.
  • Describe and discuss the concepts of equity and human rights in relation to global health.