We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Realizing Ubuntu in Global Health: An African Approach to Global Health Justice.
- Authors
Jecker, Nancy S; Atuire, Caesar A; Kenworthy, Nora
- Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the question, 'What do we owe each other as members of a global community during a global health crisis?' In tandem, it has raised underlying concerns about how we should prepare for the next infectious disease outbreak and what we owe to people in other countries during normal times. While the prevailing bioethics literature addresses these questions drawing on values and concepts prominent in the global north, this paper articulates responses prominent in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper first introduces a figurative 'global health village' to orient readers to African traditional thought. Next, it considers ethical requirements for governing a global health village, drawing on the ethic of ubuntu to formulate African renderings of solidarity, relational justice and sufficiency. The final section of the paper uses these values to critique current approaches, including COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) accelerator, and a proposed international Pandemic Treaty. It proposes a path forward that better realizes ubuntu in global health.
- Subjects
SUB-Saharan Africa; WORLD health; JUSTICE; VACCINATION; UBUNTU (Philosophy); COVID-19 pandemic
- Publication
Public Health Ethics, 2022, Vol 15, Issue 3, p256
- ISSN
1754-9973
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/phe/phac022