Turning national public health challenges into global ones

The course is entitled, “Global Governance for Health”. It is based on a report the students wrote about Global Health Governance in Norway.  (Complex Challenges Demand Cross-disciplinary Approaches – only available in Norwegian, also Iversen and Oharheim have written a commentary for the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association, also in Norwegian) Students Johanne Iversen, Kristine Husøy Onarheim and Andrea Melberg have worked closely with Professors Karen Marie Moland and Astrid Blystad.

BSRS was established in 2008 to provide a forum for discussion and training in global and developmental challenges for young researchers. It was established to help the University of Bergen to fulfil its role as an internationally leading academic institution – providing a backbone for society by “providing knowledge and educating young people”- and because “global development challenges affect us all”. BSRS 2014 runs from 23 June – 4 July.

BSRS 2014

This summer BSRS theme is “Governance to Meet Global Development Challenges”. According to the School’s web pages, “Governance” is defined as being “fundamental to the fabric of all societies” … and its “structures can create pathways to more fairness, human security, freedom and dignity – or [they] can do the opposite.”

To address such an all-encompassing theme, BSRS 2014 has adopted an interdisciplinary approach with 5 parallel courses. In addition, there are a number of open Guest Lectures featuring quite a number of internationally renowned experts. More info here

IGS’ BSRS course: Global Governance for Health

According to the course description, “Social, economic and political aspects of globalization are turning national public health challenges into global ones.” The description further states that experience has shown that attempts to reach global health targets can be unsuccessful if the dynamics relating to social, economic and political issues are not also addressed simultaneously.

Taking the Millennium Development Goals as its central focus, the course takes a critical perspective, and considers the ways in which global health policies and initiatives can tend to create an imbalance – privileging certain areas and leaving other areas marginalised. It aims to give students insights the many aspects of the multi-faceted global health arena.

BSRS students

The courses offered at BSRS target doctoral students and young researchers from social-and health sciences. But the School’s many open and plenary lectures make information about this vital and ground-breaking field available to anyone.