Challenges in Global Health Governance – The walls of migration and climate change

[This text has been written by Bailey Crowley, student of the International Governance and Global Health Policy course at ISGlobal.]

The challenges of global health governance are ever evolving. Evolving in particular to the unique problems its presented with, and ensuring it has solutions which cater for the needs of the generation. 2024 is no different, with a landscape littered with conflict, natural disasters, financial inflationary pressures, and all in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. A big topic, no doubt, thus in this blog we highlight two key challenges for global health governance: migration, and climate change.

The semi-permeable walls of migration

Migration is not a new phenomenon. But there have been several factors that has led to its growth. Notably, the access of public information, reducing travel costs, cultural acceptance of migrants, and trans-national interdependence. But there is a growing narrative that migration is a threat to host nation states. More specifically, states are sceptical that current healthcare and social security system will be able to provide to a growing population. But I believe that there is a semi-permeable wall of sorts with regards to migration. On one hand, members of a host population are concerned of not having the financial or healthcare resources to provide to its citizens. But on the other hand, we also see many of these public healthcare systems reliant on international workers to keep them functional. Thus the question lies in how permeable our walls should be, and which populations should have an easier time navigating past the walls. Or should we let the walls fall, and instead devote our resources to preventing the crises that lead to migration? To implement the former is to maintain the status quo, the latter may be a step too far for the states and their fear around the perceived threat of migration.

The hard walls of climate change

Another cause for concern in global health governance is that surrounding climate change. The health impact of the climate crises are well established. The challenges thus aren’t in a lack of awareness, education, or citizen participation. But it lies in the imbalance between political and physical geography. A fundamental component of a state is its political geography, i.e. its borders. But climate change does not follow these hard walls. Instead, the issues of climate change such as global warming traverse these walls, and affect us all. However, in the current model of fighting climate change, every country implements its own laws and regulations, and follows its national social norms around climate policy. So why then do accept a different set of regulations for each state jurisdiction? Moreover, how do we address international waters or the atmosphere around us?

To tackle these issues we need a multi-disciplinary approach. All actors ranging from international governmental organisations, public-private partnerships, non-governmental organisations, and states, need to be unified to a common goal. While yes, we cannot ignore the fact that each actor will have their own agenda. More importantly, we need to ask ourselves, can the issues of migration and climate change be isolated to state defined walls, or are these global issues? Therefore, we need an approach that prioritises prevention of future problems, rather than reacting to witnessed disasters. An approach that has strong leadership, delegation, and consequences for failing to comply. But also, an approach that is driven by individual and collective motivation for change.