Decolonizing Global Child Health Education for More Equitable and Culturally Safe Collaborations

Abstract

Global health (GH) as an academic field is fraught with both historical and present systemic injustice, including unilateral partnerships; power asymmetry in grant funding and research agenda setting; lack of acknowledgment of contributions from low- and middle-income country collaborators; and disadvantageous bias toward low- and middle-income country institutions. Reflecting on the legacies of colonialism and White supremacy is vital for training pediatricians to actively work to improve the health of all children worldwide, within bidirectional and culturally safe partnerships in which power dynamics and ethnocentrism are dismantled. In this article, we discuss the present challenges within academic GH education (GHE) and offer four key action steps to decolonize GHE: (1) reflecting on the history of global child health; (2) creating a new language framework on pertinent concepts in GHE; (3) developing cultural humility, antiracism, and decolonization curricula; and (4) intentional institutional action steps to decolonize and sustain culturally safe global child health education. [ Pediatr Ann . 2023;52(9):e344–e350.]