Global Health Fellows: Program Health Policy in a Globalizing World
Overview
In the summer of 2009, Duke University’s Sanford Institute of Public Policy will bring the fifth cohort of Global Health Fellows to Geneva. Designed to equip students to join in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other pressing health challenges, the Global Health Fellows Program will provide students with both an academic and experiential perspective on how inter-governmental institutions, public-private partnerships, and non-governmental organizations shape global health policy. By combining internships and an intensive course on global health issues, the program is a unique opportunity to learn how global health policy is formulated and implemented. This past year, fourteen graduate students drawn nationally from schools of public policy, public health, law and medicine participated in the summer experience.
The 2009 Health Policy in a Globalizing World Course, organized in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO), will likely be held at the WHO's facilities in Geneva. The course is scheduled for one week in early July of 2009. Specific dates will come shortly.
Program Structure
The Global Health Fellows Program requires a minimum commitment of *eight weeks*, including attendance in the “Health Policy in a Globalizing World” course. Program components include a required five-day intensive course on “Health Policy in a Globalizing World” run in association with WHO, placement in a health policy-related internship, and importantly, shared experiences with a cohort of Fellows with diverse backgrounds, but a common interest in global health. With program assistance, Global Health Fellows have the opportunity to plan and organize lunch or evening events and to develop a professional network of colleagues working in global health.
To apply to the Global Health Fellows Program, follow the same admissions procedure as specified for the Duke Program on Global Policy and Governance.
Program Scholarship
The Duke Global Health Institute offers two scholarships for Duke students who are accepted to the Global Health Fellows program. Please contact globalhealth@duke.edu for more information. Other students who are accepted to the program are encouraged to inquire within their departments about scholarship or fellowship opportunities.
About the course
This course provides an overview of the forces of globalization shaping health in our world, with a particular emphasis on trade, intellectual property rights and health. The course modules cover issues of disparities in health, R&D and the provision of public goods; cross-border challenges in global health; the implications of trade in goods and services on public health; and the architecture of global health governance. Through seminars, case study discussions, and site visits, participants will gain an appreciation of the context and policy levers affecting health in a globalizing world. Co-sponsored by Duke University and the World Health Organization, this offering draws on the work of the WHO’s Globalization, Trade and Health Program and the core training planned by the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.
The course is primarily taught by Dr. Anthony So, Director of the Program on Global Health and Technology Access at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. Each year’s course offering will differ, but this past year course participants heard from senior officials, from Dr. David Heymann, a World Health Organization official who played a key role in halting the spread of SARS to Amadou Sy, Director of Partnerships and External Relations at UNAIDS. The course also drew faculty from other Geneva-based, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, and course participants paid site visits to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, and UNAIDS.
Capping off the week of activities, this track featured an evening panel discussion and reception on "Delivering Innovation and Access for Global Health." Panelists included Nicoletta Dentico from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), Jamie Love from Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), and Martin Khor from the Third World Network (TWN).
*The Global Health Fellows Program also receives support from the World Health Organization, Duke’s Global Health Institute, and Duke University’s Program on Global Health and Technology Access at the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.
(Sample Syllabus 
from 2007)
