Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Health diplomacy as a tool for better global health: identifying challenges and opportunities
Mini Dissertation(MA Diplomatic Studies)--University of Pretoria, 2025
Saved in:
| Other Authors: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Pretoria
2026
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1869483750516064256 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Schoeman, Maxi |
| author_browse | Schoeman, Maxi |
| author_facet | Schoeman, Maxi |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2024 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Mini Dissertation(MA Diplomatic Studies)--University of Pretoria, 2025 |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/108341 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-07-01T04:03:57.804Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/108341 Health diplomacy as a tool for better global health: identifying challenges and opportunities Schoeman, Maxi kubekaowen@gmail.com Kubeka, Sigcino Tevin UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Diplomacy Health diplomacy Health governance COVID-19 World Health Organization Mini Dissertation(MA Diplomatic Studies)--University of Pretoria, 2025 The third and seventeenth Sustainable Development Goals “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages”, and “Partnership for the goals”, recognize the threat to human survival posed by diseases of countless kinds, as well as the indispensable importance of working together as the global community to achieve the United Nations SDGs. In a world largely characterized by inequality and human suffering, the ever-growing threat of global pandemics and the collapse of health facilities, it becomes critical for actors of different kinds to join hands against a common enemy for the so called ‘greater good’. As evidenced by recent pandemics, both ‘past’ and ongoing like the AIDS pandemic and COVID-19 which peaked in 2020/21, collective action on the promotion of health is an indispensable tool towards better health. Using International Relations theories such as Realism, as well as Constructivism, this study interrogates the possibility and motivation for states as main actors, as well as non-state actors for working together in Health Diplomacy. Contrasting self-interest with shared values and objectives, the study teases out nuance in the debate and practice of Health Diplomacy. By tracking the evolution of Health Diplomacy as far back as the Declaration of Alma Ata, the study discusses some of the core pillars and the roles of different actors, from governments to private organizations in shaping discourse and practice. With a significant focus on multilateral platforms, the study underscores the potential for Health Diplomacy to not only strengthen global health, but also diplomacy; as good health is seen as a universal objective despite institutional and political limitations. Although the Declaration of Alma-Ata is largely considered as the cornerstone of Health Diplomacy, as well as the subsequent agreements sought to institutionalize cooperation between states, the victories of Health Diplomacy have been very limited. This limitation has prompted the topic of this study, which is to identify the stumbling blocks in the forms of challenges, as well as the opportunities that can be exploited to advance Health Diplomacy. Looking at the Global Health Security Agenda as an attempt to encourage and institutionalize multi-stakeholder participation, as well as the National Action Plan for Health Security, the study highlights the limits that come with the overreliance on voluntary engagement and/or contribution, as well as the limit in resources for poor countries from the global South. From the manner in which Health Diplomacy has evolved since the Declaration of Alma-Ata, the study identifies three challenges that have served as barriers to growth of the practice, namely; Vaccine Nationalism, weak integration between health and foreign policy sectors, as well as structural inequalities and marginalization of the global South. The study then goes on to identify three opportunities that can be exploited in order to advance the global health project, namely; Multi-stakeholder partnerships, health as a bridge for cooperation, and leveraging digital health technologies. Political Sciences MA Diplomatic Studies Unrestricted Faculty of Humanities SDG-03: Good health and well-being 2026-02-17T13:41:04Z 2026-02-17T13:41:04Z 2026-05-01 2025-12-12 Mini Dissertation * http://hdl.handle.net/2263/108341 10.25403/UPresearchdata.31353385 en © 2024 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Diplomacy Health diplomacy Health governance COVID-19 World Health Organization Health diplomacy as a tool for better global health: identifying challenges and opportunities |
| title | Health diplomacy as a tool for better global health: identifying challenges and opportunities |
| title_full | Health diplomacy as a tool for better global health: identifying challenges and opportunities |
| title_fullStr | Health diplomacy as a tool for better global health: identifying challenges and opportunities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Health diplomacy as a tool for better global health: identifying challenges and opportunities |
| title_short | Health diplomacy as a tool for better global health: identifying challenges and opportunities |
| title_sort | health diplomacy as a tool for better global health identifying challenges and opportunities |
| topic | UCTD Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Diplomacy Health diplomacy Health governance COVID-19 World Health Organization |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/108341 |