Decolonizing Global Health
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Decolonizing
Global Health
Powered by Copenhagen Youth
About us
We are a student-led initiative, based in Copenhagen, critically engaging with global health through a decolonial lens. Our work focuses on creating a space for reflection, discussion, and learning, about existing power structures in global health.
Through awareness-raising and resource-sharing, we seek to challenge dominant narratives and promote more equitable approaches. We are still in the middle of our learning process—we do not claim expertise but approach this work with curiosity, and a commitment to radical change.
With critical allyship at the core of our work, we recognize the need for a decolonial transformation in global health (and many other fields).
What do we do?
The Decolonization Toolkit
The Decolonisation Toolkit (Version 1, Summer 2024) is a visual action guide that encourages the reader to think of decolonisation through different themes.
The Reading Course
This 4-week course will guide you how through an early introduction on decolonization. In this course, you will uncover how colonial structures are deeply ingrained in the crises we face in health.
The Decolonization Library
In the decolonization library we gathered the works that helped us the most in our undergoing learning trajectory, so you have to search less.
New to this website?
New to "Decolonization" as a concept?
New to our group?
New to "Decolonization" of the field of Global Health?
Decolonisation is the process of undoing the colonialism that has dominated governments, economies, and ideologies for the past centuries. We cannot speak of decolonization, without mentioning inequality and power imbalances. Even though most former colonies have been liberated, we still see a global domination of the Global North in access to resources, labour and money. This inequality, produced by colonialism, is maintained by the hegemonic power imbalance between the Global Minority World (Global North) and Global Majority World (Global South).
Colonialism is a system in which everything produced in the Global Minority World, -ideas, products, knowledge- is valued "higher", and "more powerful", while the Global Majority World remains belittled and devalued. One of the goals of decolonization aims to shift this narrative, and disrupt this power imbalance.
Want to read more? We invite you to visit this page.
The field of Global Health is born in and build upon colonial legacies. Originating from colonial medicine, global health is built upon serving imperial interests and often disregarded the health and autonomy of colonized populations. Today, global health remains shaped by unequal power dynamics, with institutions, funding, and knowledge production largely dominated by actors in the Global North. This reinforces hierarchies that marginalize local expertise and perpetuate dependency rather than solidarity.
Now, Global Health is presented as high income countries "saving" low-and-middle income countries from diseases, which often derive from structural inequality and power imbalances. Decolonization presents an alternative: a radical power shift- to build just, inclusive, and equitable health systems that center the voices and leadership of communities most affected.
Want to read more on the history of Global Health & the decolonization, please visit this page.
We are a community of Copenhagen Youth, who aspire to change the dominant narratives around Global Health from within the Global Minority World. Besides that, we aim to create a space of awareness-raising and knowledge-sharing. Please note that we are still students and do not claim expertise. Instead, we want to build a community, where we can learn from each other (and unlearn our colonial biases).
If you want to read more about us, please visit this page.