The scope and scale of the coronavirus pandemic brought the Global South debt crisis into high relief as underfunded and weakened national health systems were overwhelmed by COVID-19, and local economies undermined. Already saddled with unsustainable debt, many countries were spending far more on debt repayment than investment in public health and national health systems before the pandemic struck. Across the Global South, public sector systems now are further weakened by a still deepening debt crisis and the austerity regimes imposed to address those crises. The long-term consequences of the economic slowdown and austerity caused by the pandemic itself have compounded the challenges to the global health and health systems across the Global South. All of these new challenges have landed on health systems, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, already struggling with HIV, TB, malaria, and basic primary health care provision. Private debt has also ballooned in recent years in the Global South as private equity firms and hedge funds refuse to participate in debt relief efforts with public agencies. This talk will review how the new debt crisis is a major political determinant of health, and new rounds of austerity are impacting health systems and public health in several African settings including Mozambique, Zambia, and Ghana. We will describe global advocacy efforts underway to challenge private creditors and the IMF.
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About the Speaker
James Pfeiffer PhD, MPH is currently Professor in the Department of Global health in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington, Seattle, with a joint appointment in the Department of Anthropology.
About this seminar series
The Collective Conversations is a seminar series organised by the Collective for the Political Determinants of Health. It aims to bring an original and critical lens to global health debates by discussing how the political determinants shape health outcomes.
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