health diplomacy

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the subset of diplomatic activity concerned with foreign policy and international relations that is directed toward improving national or global health outcomes, including the negotiation of international health agreements, the use of health assistance as a tool of foreign policy, and the engagement of multiple sectors — foreign affairs, finance, trade, development, defence — in health-related international negotiations; health diplomacy encompasses both formal diplomatic negotiations — such as the negotiation of the IHR, the FCTC, or the Pandemic Treaty — and bilateral health assistance programmes used to build relationships between nations; it also addresses how trade agreements, intellectual property rules, and investment treaties affect access to medicines and health outcomes; the field emerged prominently during and after HIV/AIDS, when debates about trade-related intellectual property rights and access to antiretroviral medicines at the Doha WTO ministerial meeting in 2001 revealed the deep intersection of health, trade, and diplomacy; global health diplomacy is taught in schools of international affairs and public health worldwide

Examples

• China's health diplomacy through its 'Health Silk Road' — providing medical teams, supplies, and vaccines to partner countries — has been widely analysed as a tool of soft power.
• The negotiations on the WHO Pandemic Accord demonstrated the complexity of health diplomacy, as high-income and low-income countries disagreed fundamentally on equity provisions and pathogen-sharing obligations.

Synonyms: global health diplomacy, health foreign policy, medical diplomacy