Global Health and Poverty 2018

May 28 to June 8, 2018

The International Summer School welcomed 29 advanced international students (Masters or PhD level) working in global health or development economics. The summer school addressed the central health challenges of the world today, focusing particularly on their many intersections with poverty. Participants delved into the central question of the complex interplay of a person’s health status and economic prosperity or deprivation in the context of low- and middle-income countries.
Over the two-week program, students became more familiarized with the most important global health challenges and explored the role health economics and policies play in tackling these. Students benefited from a range of theoretical courses, research-orientated lectures, and practical activities. Theoretical and empirical courses were held by renowned speakers from leading universities and institutes in global health. The practical activities included a two-day excursion to Berlin including a visit of the German Parliament and meetings with political decision-makers. In addition to that, the summer school provided the opportunity of visits to other health institutes and health technology firms. In order to further foster group dynamics between attendees and give an insight into German cultural and historical heritage, a social program including an excursion to Wartburg was part of the summer school.


Program

The courses were offered by several invited lecturers from the University of Göttingen and beyond.

1) Global Health Today
The introductory courses of the summer school gave an overview of the global health challenges today. On the one hand, the pathways from health to poverty and vice versa were assessed from a theoretical perspective. On the other hand, the current state of global health and its most pressing issues for lower- and middle-income countries was discussed.
Here, the stark contrast between rising living standards & life expectancy globally while at the same time still observing large numbers of preventable deaths & lack of universal health care was inspected.

2) Selected Topics on Health and Poverty
Following the introduction, this block of classes allowed for a more specific look at some of the most urgent health issues affecting lower- and middle-income countries. One topic was on the limited access to health care and health insurance. Another special focus was malnutrition. Within these topics, past developments and policies were analyzed in their successes and failures. The identification of remaining challenges and issues as well as potentially low-hanging fruit in high-impact health interventions concluded these sessions.

3) Communicable Diseases
Communicable diseases are still one of the major causes of death in lower- and middle- income countries. The sessions on CD first reviewed the advances that have been made through policies and technological innovation. They went on to address the persisting as well as newly arising challenges (such as living with HIV during old age) holding us back in lowering the burden of communicable diseases. Alongside this, the question of what is preventing further improvements and the eventual eradication of several diseases was discussed.

4) Non-communicable Diseases
Amidst rising income and standards of living globally, non-communicable diseases are on the rise everywhere. As behavioral risk factors – such as smoking, lack of physical activity, unhealthy diets, or alcohol consumption – increase, non-communicable diseases pose a major challenge for health systems. Courses on this covered the epidemiological transition and how policies can influence this (for example through food-system based interventions, such as sugar taxes). A special focus was on the double burden of disease in lower- and middle- income countries.

The program was complemented by practical insights into health and governmental institutions in Germany. For this, participants went on a two day excursion to Berlin including a visit of the German Parliament.

The Social Program included: