Decolonizing Global Health Toolkit
Ableism: Refers to bias. prejudice, and discrimination against people with disabilities. Hinges on the idea that people with disabilities are less valuable than nondisabled people. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/ableism
Classism: A belief that a person’s social or economic station in society determines their value in that society. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/classism
Colonialism: Refers to the combination of territorial, juridical, cultural, linguistic, political, mental/epistemic, and/or economic domination of one group of people by another (external) group of people. Amber Murrey, in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition), 2020
Co-production of knowledge: The integration of different knowledge systems and methodologies to systematically understand the phenomena, systems, and processes being studied in a research project. National Science Foundation (NSF) https://nna-co.org/strategic-objectives/co-production-knowledge
Decolonizing: The act of becoming free from colonial status. “Decolonize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decolonize. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022
Decolonizing Global Health: Reversing the legacy of colonialism in health equity work. https://globalhealth.washington.edu/sites/default/files/ICRC%20Decolonize%20GH%20Toolkit_20210330.pdf
Epistemology: The study of a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge, especially with reference to its limits and validity. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/epistemology. Accessed 20 Oct. 2022
Global health: An area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving health equity for all people worldwide (Koplan et al. 2009). Broadly defined as “an area of research and practice committed to the application of overtly multidisciplinary, multisectoral, and culturally sensitive approaches for reducing health disparities that transcend national borders (Salm et al., 2021).”
Global health equity: Mutually beneficial and power-balanced partnerships and processes leading to equitable human and environmental health outcomes (which we refer to as “products”) on a global scale. August and Tadesse et al. What is Global Health Equity? A Proposed Definition. Annals of Global Health. 2022; 88(1): 50, 1–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh. 375
Health equity: Absence of unfair, avoidable, and remediable differences in health status among groups of people. (WHO)
Intersectionality: The complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect, especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intersectionality
Marginalization: The prevention or limitation of full participation in society. This can be observed through overt exclusions from opportunities in the job market, healthcare system, public benefit programs, and community activities, as well as through covert pressures to hide aspects of one’s authentic self due to fears of ostracization.
Paternalism/Paternal charity: Acts of charity that are paternalistic in nature. That is, “relating to or characterized by the restriction of the freedom and responsibilities of subordinates or dependents in their supposed interest.” (Oxford Dictionary)
Political determinants of health: Involve the systematic process of structuring relationships, distributing resources, and administering power, operating simultaneously in ways that mutually reinforce or influence one another to shape opportunities that either advance health equity or exacerbate health inequities. Daniel Dawes, 2020
Positionality: “The way in which people view themselves and are viewed by others: as an insider or outsider, someone with power or who feels powerless, or coming from a privileged or disadvantaged situation.” Ozano (2018).
Social determinants of health: Conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks. Healthy People 2020, CDC
Structural racism: Laws, rules, or official policies in a society that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary
Structural violence: Social arrangements that put individuals and populations in harm’s way. The arrangements are structural because they are embedded in the political and economic organization of our social world; they are violent because they cause injury to people (Farmer et al. 2006:1686)
Tokenization: “The practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people (tokens) from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality.” Oxford Reference https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803104818976
Please find detailed list of glossaries of terms from American Medica Association
ADVANCING HEALTH EQUITY: A GUIDE TO LANGUAGE, NARRATIVE AND CONCEPTS