The Rear View Mirror: Locating Yourself in Global Health

Our Communications and Grant Management Intern in 2023, Manasvini Moni penned a blog for ‘Equity in Action’, reflecting on the importance of reflection. This was inspired by an event and workshop on Decolonising Global Health facilitated by Brittney S. Mengistu (a later contributor to this blog), and by her own journey in examining her role and potential to drive social change. She holds a Master’s in Public Health Sciences and is passionate about health equity, research and communication.

Amidst our busy lives, we invite you to pause, read this blog titled ‘The Rear View Mirror: Locating Yourself in Global Health‘, and reflect on your own journeys in the world of global health and health equity.

The Rear View Mirror: Locating Yourself in Global Health by Manasvini Moni

2023 is coming to an end, and as always, we reflect on the year gone by. From New Year’s Resolutions to Spotify Wrapped to Annual Reports, we flip through our personal and collective pasts and appraise them against our current goals and values, looking for lessons for the future. Normally, these goals are ‘self-improvement’ or productivity-related: ‘Did I go to the gym enough?’ ‘Did I make more friends?’. ‘Did we achieve our targets?’. But we also know some extremely important goals that are less tangible or measurable, such as our quest for health equity. What purpose does reflection serve in achieving an equitable and just Global Health? 

I explored this question during the recent event on ‘Decolonising Global Health (DGH) organised by the IGHN and ESTHER team, co-facilitated by myself and Brittney S. Mengistu, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in Global Health at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Followers of IGHN and ESTHER Ireland will be familiar with our interest in DGH. Every facet of our world has been shaped by its colonial histories and global health is no exception. The emerging DGH movement attempts to acknowledge, address, and dismantle the colonial structures embedded within Global Health to achieve health equity and justice. This is no easy task and requires the understanding and commitment of everyone in the field. With this event, we aimed to provide an inquisitive space to collectively learn about and engage with DGH, and most importantly, reflect on our role within the discipline and movement. 

What roles do we as individuals play in achieving structural change? How do we promote equity, dismantle harmful structures, and build new ones that are based on health and well-being for all? These are questions that are currently rattling inside my brain, as a young person in Global Health, trying to understand where I can best contribute to creating a better world. I could not have asked for a better outlet for these questions than Dr Mengistu’s workshop on Reflexivity and Positionality, which was the core of our event. 

‘Reflexivity’ and ‘Positionality’ are two concepts that are essential to the social sciences often used in anthropology and qualitative research. Reflexivity refers to ‘the act of examining one’s own assumptions, beliefs, and judgments, and thinking carefully and critically about how they influence the research process.’ Part of this process involves examining one’s ‘position’ in the research and in the world, acknowledging and understanding how our ‘various, intersecting social identities (gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, dis/ability, geographical location, etc.)’ affect how we view and experience the world. 

Reflecting on our social identities and their impact on our lives is a daunting task. Social identities are complex, amorphous, and fluid – changing across time, geography, culture and perspectives. During the workshop, many discussed the identities that come up often in contemporary discourse on social justice, such as age, sex, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. Fascinatingly, some more dispositional identities were also discussed – traits such as introvertedness, confidence or shyness. All identities that are equally malleable and equally rigid, depending on the context. 

These identities, both tangible and temperamental, intersect and shape how others perceive me, how I perceive myself, and how I behave and impact the world – positively, negatively or neutrally (or my green, red, or beige flags as Gen-Z might say). Reflecting on my positions in the world encourages a dual reflection – on myself and society. When I see myself in the mirror, it is not just me I see, as I would every December, reflecting on the immediate. I now see a panorama – a wide and all-encompassing view of what surrounds me and what precedes me – like in a rear-view mirror. I can locate myself in the wider world. Without the panorama, I only know what I can control, with everything else seemingly out of my reach. But when I see the horizons, I see how everything connects to me, no matter how distant it may seem. 

Global health is a journey, and so are decolonisation and social justice. Our destinations change all the time, for ourselves, our disciplines, and society. Striving towards new goals and values is a wonderful act of caring and should happen without shame or defensiveness. If our standards for what is good never changed, we would be stagnant or worse, in perpetual regression. As cliché as it may be, change is constant and inevitable. How do we make sure that we are changing for the better?  

By reflecting and acting. Our actions won’t be perfect. We will misinterpret our maps and take wrong turns. However, we can always stop, hold ourselves accountable, reflect on our actions, apologise to our passengers, and chart a new course. Pause for a minute, locate ourselves, and re-calculate. 

To locate ourselves in the Global Health journey, we need good tools. We must invest in a good rear view mirror – a consistent practice of reflection and accountability. We need to peek at the mirror as often as required to be aware of ourselves, our surroundings, and our individual and collective histories that determine the available pathways, and our ability to choose the roads worth travelling on. Beyond the practical benefits, a panoramic view of our pasts and contexts is also a beautiful portrait of hope. Look back at how far we have come and keep going. How will you use your mirror to guide your future?

About the Author

Manasvini Moni, Communications and Grants Management Intern

Manasvini Moni is a recent graduate with a Master’s in Public Health from Karolinska Institute, Sweden. She also holds a BSc in Human Sciences from University College London, UK.  Born and raised in New Delhi, India, she is passionate about advancing health and social equity using innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to research, advocacy, and communication. She has donned many hats in this pursuit – being a researcher, writer, and podcaster to name a few. She has also researched and engaged with a wide range of topics within health and social justice including decolonisation, gender-based violence, sustainability, anti-microbial resistance, healthcare supply chains, vaccine hesitancy and more. When not at work, you can find her reading, listening to music, and keeping up with pop culture.