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Research/Academic Imperialism in Global Health - Its Prominence and the Impact on the World

One of the most subtle ways in which imperialism has permeated our world is in research. No matter the field it is carried out in, research will definitely be supported by data to make it more credible. However, instead of a fair assessment of the world, most of these data tend to be Eurocentric. This theory is expounded through one of the most vital issues facing our world today - global health. From politics to life sciences, this is a subject that involves various fields; this gives it a significantly larger audience to influence. Academic, or research, imperialism can hence have a real-world impact.

One of the main players associated with global health is the World Health Organization (WHO). A glance at WHO’s webpage solidifies the idea that there tends to be a Western focus for global health. In the “Top 10 Global Causes of Death” published by WHO, the breakdown of global death causes is almost identical to the breakdown for the upper-middle-income and high-income countries. In contrast, diseases that plague low-income countries such as diarrhoeal diseases rank at an unimpressive 9th in the global breakdown. Furthermore, another few leading causes of disease worldwide - coincidentally, the burden of it found to be highest in high-income OECD countries - are mental disorders and substance abuse. Despite the obvious slant towards Western countries for such an issue, WHO has touted mental health and substance abuse as a worldwide problem.

The impact of this Eurocentric lens on global health is reflected in the actions carried out by governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and companies. The United Kingdom alone saw an increase of around USD$2.5 billion in mental health research and services in 2018, as compared to the grand total of USD$3.1 billion funding available for malaria worldwide. This disparity shows the ever-present influence of imperialism in today’s world.

In addition to the Eurocentric data presented and real-world impact, Derek Summerfield also argues in his article that the problem with “global mental health” is the belief that the Western notions and definitions of mental health can be translated into all countries. The biomedical models behind mental health rely heavily on Western social and economical situations; this context may not translate into the non-Western world which carry vastly different philosophies and standards of living.

Why are we then applying such euro-centric lenses to global population with regards to health? Is this simply a product of the domineering countries defining what global health is based on what is familiar to them or is there a more tangible reason for such a phenomenon? Admittedly, one of the main reasons is the struggle in data collection from less-developed countries. Whether it is the lack of a non-corrupt government or inaccessibility, it is a prominent issue and features strongly in the case of global health. The United Nations has also acknowledged this situation and set-up a Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data to alleviate this problem. As such, despite the Eurocentric data used in global health, it may not simply be due to academic/research imperialism; other underlying factors in the less developed countries play a part as well.

It does still remain true that Eurocentric data is currently presented as worldwide data in the field of global health, throwing an imperialistic lens on it. While other global issues may not be examined in this chapter, it is highly likely that Eurocentric/Western-centric data is gathered and used to support other global issues. Through the representing data, the world is subtly influenced and the domineering countries are portrayed as the end all. With these less-developed countries being underrepresented in such a context, there will definitely be a skewed perspective of the world on the importance of certain issues, hence affecting the reactions/solutions for these issues, making them generally catered to the Western popuation instead of the whole world.