A parting message from Dr Nadine Ferris France, Executive Director, IGHN

After 15 years leading the Irish Global Health Network (IGHN), it is time for me to move on.  I wanted to share a few thoughts as I move from this space, and welcome your thoughts.

When I started with IGHN, the Irish Forum for Global Health at the time, I spent a lot time explaining what global health was and why it was important.  Education on global health was not easily available in our Universities, and although people had for decades been working on the important health issues and diseases of our time, there was a lack of joined up thinking, not just in Ireland, but globally. Always in IGHN, there were people – incredible people, who for the most part had worked overseas and had been changed as a result of what they had learned from their friends and colleagues working especially and mostly in Africa and Asia.  I myself had just returned from 19 years working overseas in health and development, and was grateful for that grounding in every decision I made within IGHN.

When COVID happened, now over 6 years ago, suddenly global health was front and centre.  Why global health was important needed no more explanation, and in IGHN, we were able to pull together as a broad and committed community to host CONVOS on COVID – a series of weekly Friday lunchtime webinars that kept us connected to what was happening inside and outside of Ireland.  Global health security became a priority, as people everywhere realised that health knows no borders – what happens in one country influences the health of another country – and the only solution is in joined up thinking, sharing of systems, resources, knowledge and solidarity.  

In the past few years the theme of decolonisation has been prominent in our work – and by that I mean our hearts and minds.  Old legacies of colonialism, power, and privilege—the “we know better” mindset—have rightly been challenged. The meaning of equity is now more widely understood, though much work remains to make it a reality. The understanding that we have much more to learn than we have to teach is filtering through most effective collaborative North-South programmes and initiatives in global health, and the world is better for it.

With all these advances, comes the shake up last year when the collapse of US funding disrupted the global health architecture, triggering a domino effect as many programmes and organisations were de-funded.  Ultimately this means people are now losing vital services, most often provided in communities where populations are the most vulnerable. People’s lives are disregarded, as life-saving medications are not reaching those who need them, diseases are not being reported and monitored, and clinics and hospitals struggle to care for their people – it will be years before we fully understand the impact. 

In the meantime, overseas aid is being channelled into defence budgets and we struggle as a community to do what we know works best, instead taking what we can get, and operating for a large part in a reactive mode, rather than a strategic one.  Decriminalisation and human rights that have been hard fought for over 20 years in many countries are now being reversed. Vulnerable groups of people – sex workers, people who use drugs, LGBQTI and others are going back underground, meaning the hardest-to-reach people become even harder to reach. This seriously undermines progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, not to mention gender equality and basic human rights.

With crisis and change, there are always opportunities, although we may struggle sometimes to see them.  Countries such as Rwanda, South Africa and Kenya are leading on the agenda of self-reliance, and coming up with innovative and life-saving initiatives to ensure reliance on external donors is reduced. With that reduction in funding, the power that money has yielded in the past is weaker, meaning outside agenda-setting is reduced – responses are becoming more needs-based, and focusing on local solutions to local problems.

As an established and growing community of global health activists and advocates in Ireland, we have a choice and a responsibility to stay true to our values, and to lean into Irish values of solidarity, respect, dignity and service even more than before.  We have a duty to rise above the culture of fear internationally, and to speak up and speak out for what is right.  We are relatively small in the big pond internationally, but we have always had a bigger impact as a successful island economy than simple demography suggests, and have much respect and influence among our international colleagues.  

We have a duty to change, respond, and to be innovative and particularly to support the most vulnerable. Ireland has stepped up and increased its ODA budget at a time when most other countries have reduced it. We have to adjust to the world as it is, asking hard questions, looking for joined up solutions, and supporting the idea of community at all levels.  Community is at the heart of Ireland’s global health response, and we must protect and value that community now more than ever.  I would strongly suggest that organisations and initiatives that facilitate civil society conversations, networking and bringing together global health and development expertise through events and organic communications are more important than ever – especially in the light of shrinking spaces and budgets.

I urge each and every one of you to be courageous, to know that this is a critical time for solidarity across the world, and that you, your team and organisation can make a difference and must stand up for the values of a just society and a humane world.  Believe that Ireland can remain committed and maintain integrity, holding each other accountable for our decisions and actions. Doing the right thing is not always popular, politically expedient, or mainstream—but deep down, we know what is right.

At the end of the day, lives matter, and global health affects us all.

I am so grateful to all the incredible members of IGHN, from our young professionals, to those working in our NGOs, Universities, health services, Government and to all who have engaged in IGHN on the Board, as a conference committee member or a conference participant or volunteer – I have learned hugely from each and every one of you.

Dr Nadine Ferris France

Executive Director, IGHN

[email protected]/[email protected]