Capacity Building for Global Health

The increased significance of the global dimension for health requires new ideas, concepts and solutions for researchers as well as policy makers. Such changes in contemporary practices and policies can only be achieved if sufficient capacities are available among the actors and organizations involved. This also affects the institutions of the European Union. While (human, financial, organizational and infrastructural) capacities are reasonably well established in the areas of trade, development and foreign policy, it is unclear how these capacities can best be facilitated under one global health approach. The European Academic Global Health Alliance (EAGHA), a network of European academic institutes dealing with global health research and advocacy, predicts that the “EU will need to improve its capacity for analysis and dialogue on global health challenges at national, regional and international levels”. While "traditional" public health knowledge will remain important under a global health approach, European public health communities also need to link this knowledge to other sectors and need to acquire additional capacities in particular with regards to the aforementioned areas of analysis and communication of global health challenges as well as in the areas of international relations and global (health) governance.

This presentation will elaborate on the need for capacity building in the EU to effectively follow a global health approach and to tackle existing and future global health challenges. It will further propose a strategic suggestion for action where the EU needs to strengthen and align its different sector’s to effectively address the global health challenges to come. This requires an identification of available capacities in the different sectors and a critical appraisal of how these sectors need to collaborate to achieve the best possible outcome for global health.