The inaugural Oxford Global Health (OGH) Summit brought together colleagues from across the University to celebrate achievements, spark dialogue, and chart a shared vision for Oxford’s role in global health.
It was an afternoon of lively, sometimes provocative debate and reflection – underscoring Oxford’s commitment to equity, collaboration and ambition, and the growing momentum behind efforts to tackle the world’s most pressing health challenges.
OGH set out a bold challenge: strengthen the University’s global health community and partnerships, and champion collaborative, inclusive research that makes a real difference to people’s lives around the world.
Navigating the turbulence
Opening the event, Professor Alan Bernstein, Director of OGH, reflected on this period of turbulence – marked by funding cuts, shifting power dynamics, rapid scientific and technological advances, and changing patterns of disease burden across the Global North and South.
"We are witnessing a new chapter in which African, Asian and Latin American partners are taking ownership of global health agendas. Oxford has a responsibility to be part of that conversation: co-creating solutions that serve the world, with respect and a spirit of true collaboration," he said.
While the past few decades have brought remarkable progress in health, the gains are not shared equally with the Global South and are now stalling. Meeting these challenges requires collaboration grounded in trust and cultural awareness, bringing together people across disciplines and geographies.
Connecting People, Purpose and Vision
The model of Oxford Global Health sits at the heart of what we are trying to do.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey
In her remarks, the Vice-Chancellor spoke about Oxford’s mission and values — working with respect, breaking down silos, and ensuring research truly reflects the people we serve. “The magic happens when we come together and work collectively to solve global health challenges,” she said.
Professor Gavin Screaton, Head of the Medical Sciences Division, described OGH as both an internal connector and an external amplifier – linking people and projects across divisions while presenting a clear, coordinated voice to partners, funders and governments. The aim is to move from individual excellence to collective impact.
Reframing the role of the ‘Global North’ Scholar
In her keynote address, Professor Mishal Khan of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine urged participants to confront the power dynamics that shape global health, particularly the role of scholars in the Global North. She challenged the narrative that positions the Global North as the source of expertise and the Global South as a source of problems “in need of help and reform”. Instead, she called for recognition that many health and development challenges originate in the Global North, while the Global South holds essential expertise for addressing them.
Collaboration Across Boundaries
A panel discussion brought together colleagues from history, social policy, population health, primary care and medical microbiology, highlighting the need to broaden participation and perspectives in global health.
Some called for greater epistemic inclusion, noting that much scholarship remains grounded in biomedical approaches. Lasting solutions demand engagement with other ways of knowing. As one participant put it: “We must learn to learn from where we haven’t learned before.”
Professor Susanna Dunachie, Associate Director of OGH, stressed the importance of bringing more colleagues from the humanities and social sciences into global health, pointing to how much can be learned from history, policymaking and co-creation.
"We often fall back into thinking about ‘our problem’, ‘our solution’, ‘our community’… But will that specificity serve us well in the next 10–20 difficult years? Are there opportunities for us, as an interconnected and outward-looking university, to think about global health solutions that cut across sectors and are not just ‘our challenge’?" asked Professor Lucie Cluver OBE, Professor of Child and Family Social Work.
An Agenda for Action
Participants identified priorities to drive progress:
- Facilitate new interest groups – from students and early-career researchers to health areas such as cancer and other non-communicable diseases.
- Map Oxford’s global health activity to strengthen internal coherence and clarity.
- Commit to co-creation, ensuring that research is shaped with communities and partners, grounded in their priorities, expertise and lived realities.
Global health is as much about how you do it as it is about what you do.
Professor Caesar Atuire, Associate Director OGH
As Professor Atuire observed, global health depends on enabling and connecting others – creating the space for collaborative, respectful and inclusive work across the University.