Does global health still have a colonial mindset?

Interesting and thought-provoking: recognising what has been done and using that as a springboard for considering how to do things differently - a real 'fix problems not blame' approach which is the way to go if your aim is to eliminate rather than perpetuate the notion that people are different solely because of where they happen to be on the cline of skin pigmentation!

Really opens up the debate in a constructive way... the "othering" of who is cured and who produces the cure needs attention, and surely collaboration in teaching and research has to be more than an exercise in narratives and needs to become an actual process. Particularly in small(er) countries that effectively end up as case studies for researchers and publications in the "West"

As much as I agree that the colonial or missionary approach to global health and research needs to change, we cannot ignore the fact that all the capacity building in the world will mean nothing if there is no commitment from local government. There are already wonderful researchers in developing countries, most working miracles with little to no resources and support. And they are the lucky ones. Why do you think so many students from Latin America go to the US, Canada or Europe for training and never come back to their home countries? You want to help and support researchers in developing countries? Providing funding is all well and good, but if you want long term change, let's tackle the problem of corruption and lack of job security in those countries you aim to support. I don't see how academia can fix societal corruption, though, so how about opening real positions (not an endless list of postdoc posts) in Western institutions that recruit local researchers and allow them to remain in their country, have access to funding, and can do the job where they live.