Centre for Global Health and Intersectional Equity Research

The Centre's vision

Our vision is to build a global health community of researchers and practitioners working to build a fairer and healthier world, by focusing on the health of most and multiply disadvantaged and those living in contexts of precarity. We aim to do this by leading high quality and cutting-edge research, dialogue and praxis to advance health for all, especially those at the intersections of multiple disadvantages and marginalisation.

Aiming for transformative social change

We aim to build better evidence by asking the right questions, and ‘measuring what we value’, better communication of evidence, and active engagement and partnerships with decision makers. To achieve transformative social change, we're developing context-specific, innovative research and evaluation tools, approaches, and guidance frameworks.

Objectives

CGHIER’s distinctive focus on intersectional equity derives from the widespread recognition of the paradigm shift needed in thinking about, investigating, and tackling some of the intractable global health challenges and new ways required to understand the complex nature of health inequities and health injustice. Intersectionality is recognised as a promising approach, offering such paradigm shift, that helps analyse multifaceted power structures and processes that produce and sustain differences in health experiences and outcomes. Foregrounding intersectionality across its work, the Centre aims to develop integrated value-based and evidence led solutions and ideas that can be applied, scaled, adapted, and translated for social change.

1. Fostering interdisciplinary research on critical global health challenges, and their social and structural determinants.
2. Strengthening data and evidence and visualization. By developing new indicators; systematically monitoring critical indicators of health equity in our research across diverse field sites (local and international) strengthening evidence base on health status of vulnerable population groups and supporting new evidence and ways of visualising inequalities.
3. Creating a generative space for shared learning on key global health problems. By bringing together our international and multidisciplinary network of academics and practitioners to establish a knowledge and evidence hub for global health and intersectional equity, and by providing a facility to communicate our combined messages about global health inequities and other cross-cutting areas.
4. Building local and regional capacities in research and policy development. By offering unique training opportunities for early and mid-career researchers/ scientists and decision makers to build capacities in research, policy development and advocacy. Our distinctive offerings include training in applying intersectionality to analyse and tackle health inequalities; utilising Participatory Action Research techniques in health evaluations; and engaging disadvantaged communities and underserved regions in priority setting and intervention design processes.
5. Building equitable partnerships and utilising trans-local approaches to tackle global health challenges impacting the most disadvantaged. By strengthening our partnerships with international stakeholders (UN agencies, regional and intergovernmental partners), national governments and think tanks, offering technical and research assistance for design, analysis, and advocacy.
6. Enhancing policy and practice. By generating evidence-driven action and policies that can help tackle inequities and close the gap. disseminating tools and guidelines that can help data translation and advocate for their uptake in research and planning.

Our thematic focus

The Centre’s work utilises the lenses of gender, intersectionality and decoloniality across the following domains:

1. Migration, forced displacement and health
2. Community participation in health and participatory governance (User engagement, citizen voice and participation)
3. Mental health and psychosocial well-being
4. Chronic conditions and NCDs
5. Social, commercial, geopolitical determinants of health
6. Health policy and systems inequalities: Resilience and responsiveness (Health emergencies/pandemics, disasters)
7. Gender, sexual and reproductive health rights

Our flagship initiatives