Keri Gilligan - Blog Post 4

The current global pandemic has sparked more conversation around the importance of global health and how to both support and maintain it. Global health is a broad and daunting issue that cannot be solved simply. Despite it being “global,” global health is not global with much of its representation coming from the North. This flaw does not allow for developing states in the South to get representation in different policies and procedures that will benefit its people. The article “Silenced Voices in Global Health” from Think Global Health, bring up the importance of representing diverse groups of marginalized populations in global health. One point mentioned, which I am aware is obvious, is that “A person can belong to an underrepresented population but still be highly privileged,” but I have rarely ever thought about it in terms of representation. They highlighted this by comparing a “a woman from the global South from civil society may have been raised in New York, networked with the global elite since childhood, gone to Ivy League universities, and have ample wealth to draw from” versus a woman from the global South who lives in a village and only got a primary school education. This raises the question, does the privileged woman from the global South represent the woman living in the village?

I argue that this woman does not represent the one living in the global South. Although these two women probably share some of the same cultural traditions, values, and norms, many of their experiences are incomparable. The privileged woman cannot speak about the same struggles as the woman supporting her family in the village. And assuming the privileged woman resides in the Global North, this alters her standard of living and overall quality of life in many ways. This discrepancy creates a difficult situation because even when large companies want to get more diverse leaders, it almost always calls for people from well educated backgrounds attending elite universities, and many times this requires some sort of privileged background to afford such as education. To have people in positions to make choices to support global health, they often have to come from similarly educated backgrounds. Thus, global health organizations must be transparent about this in that they will most likely not perfectly represent those in underprivileged areas of the world. 

So what should we do if we want more representation in global health? I see a major piece of this being education. Through supporting education systems in the global South, more women can take on leadership roles in their own communities and possibly on the global scale. This would need the assistance of other privileged states, but it could also run into the problem of the privileged state setting the agenda if they are financing projects to further education. This is why it is crucial to have some people, say the privileged educated woman from the global South, being a part of a project that works to educate women, not the American-born white male. This selection and administration is crucial to getting effective education and thus representation. Additionally, another way to improve representation is to get more than just one “diverse” person to meet the quota. This means getting multiple people from different places and most importantly, with different experiences. I also argue that the most important piece to all of this is the recognition that privilege exists and even underrepresented populations can have it. If diverse speakers believe they can speak on behalf of every marginalized person in the global South, no progress can be made with the global South being accurately portrayed. This ultimately causes their needs to be forgotten. Thus, it is crucial that leaders in global health recognize this privilege as they try to bring in more people who have first hand experiences in these underprivileged regions of the world. 

In summary, this is a tricky situation when considering the role of privilege. As mentioned in the article, “there is always someone who will be less privileged or underrepresented because identities and socio-economic contexts are complex,” so global health may never truly be holistically represented. This may be the sad reality, but we can consistently work to improve this by increasing underrepresented voices in global health, even if that means not being able to represent every population perfectly, it is a start. We must support education in the global start to give a chance for the woman living with her family in the village in the global South. Those dominating global health need to step back and acknowledge the immense privilege they hold.