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About this talk

Global health financing has long been dominated by donor-led, disease-specific programmes that, while saving lives, have also fragmented public health responses, reinforced unequal power relations, and undermined the sustainability of national health systems. In recent years, structural failings have been compounded by Covid-19-era debt burdens and the diversion of health budgets as well as by the dramatic contraction of global health funding in 2025. The shrinking of donor commitments and the shifting of burdens onto already-stretched domestic budgets is forcing a reckoning with the model itself - with profound consequences for the populations that depend on these systems. Who should pay for health in low- and middle-income countries, how, and on whose terms? This DLD Conversation brings together perspectives from history, health policy research, and humanitarian practice to examine the consequences of the current financing crisis for public health and development in the Global South, and to explore what more equitable and sustainable alternatives might produce better health outcomes and broader economic gains.

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