Preface
Global health and development is an interdisciplinary field that connects population health, economics, politics, ethics, environment, and institutional design. This textbook is written as a course resource for students who need a structured introduction that is conceptual, policy-oriented, and practically usable.
The book treats health as part of development rather than as a narrow service issue. Across the chapters, students are invited to examine why some risks are concentrated in particular groups, how systems succeed or fail, and what forms of leadership, partnership, financing, and evidence are required to produce fair and sustainable improvement.
Although the text is global in scope, it avoids presenting countries as abstract cases or passive recipients of policy ideas. Instead, it emphasizes context, history, local ownership, and the need to interpret data and interventions through social, political, and institutional realities.
Learning outcomes
- Explain major concepts, institutions, and debates in global health and development.
- Interpret core health and development indicators and recognize limits of measurement.
- Analyze how determinants, governance, financing, and systems shape population outcomes.
- Assess policy choices using lenses of equity, feasibility, ethics, and sustainability.
- Apply program planning, implementation, and monitoring frameworks to practical cases.
Contents
Chapter 1. Foundations of Global Health and Development
Chapter 2. Historical Evolution and Major Paradigms
Chapter 3. Determinants of Health and Development
Chapter 4. Measuring Population Health and Development
Chapter 5. Disease Burden, Demography, and Epidemiologic Transition
Chapter 6. Health Systems and Universal Health Coverage
Chapter 7. Health Financing, Resource Allocation, and Priority Setting
Chapter 8. Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health
Chapter 9. Communicable Diseases and Global Preparedness
Chapter 10. Noncommunicable Diseases, Mental Health, and Injury
Chapter 11. Nutrition, Food Systems, and Human Development
Chapter 12. Water, Sanitation, Environment, and Climate Resilience
Chapter 13. Equity, Gender, Rights, and Social Inclusion
Chapter 14. Humanitarian Health, Fragility, and Forced Displacement
Chapter 15. Global Governance, Partnerships, and International Institutions
Chapter 16. Program Planning, Implementation, Monitoring, and Sustainable Change
Glossary of essential terms
Common acronyms
Selected official resources and links
Policy memo and country comparison tools
