Global Health: Where to Now?

The recently evolving global financial crisis reveals both the fragile state of the global economy and the major long-term implications of an increasingly unfair global economy for global health and human flourishing. We are also at a critical juncture in world history in relation to understanding and endeavoring to counteract the adverse effects of modern life on climate change and our natural environment. If the growing world-wide interest and apparent commitment to global health and environmental security are to have a significant impact it will be necessary for us be deeply introspective about our value system and reconsider what needs to be done to ensure long-term and secure human flourishing in an interdependent world. It is proposed that belief in endless economic growth and emphasis on an entirely medicalized approach to health needs to be replaced by a vision of healthy human life that is achievable and sustainable for a greater proportion of the world’s population.