Researchers have acknowledged the global health inequities between high-income countries (HICs) and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which can be attributed to colonialism, racism, sexism, and capitalism. In a viewpoint published in Annals of Global Health, Dr. Madelon Finkel, professor of clinical population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine, and colleagues highlight potential new partnerships between HICs and LMICs and the decolonization of global health. Moving forward, the global health community needs to agree how to best address the issue. In particular, there is a need for attention to be given to creating a more equal and equitable representation of researchers in LMICs in decision-making, leadership roles, authorship, and funding allocations. Further, there needs to be agreement in defining basic principles of best practices for global partnership, including a universal definition of ‘decolonization of global health’; the extent to which current policies allow the perpetuation of power imbalance between HICs and LMICs; a set of principles, best practices, and models for equitable sharing of funds and institutional costs among partners; a mechanism to monitor the equitable sharing of credits (e.g., leadership, authorship); and more.
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