Equity in Global Health Research

This thoughtful book offers unique insights on global health research, drawing attention to the equity choices embedded in day-to-day patterns and assumptions that shape how people do, think about, and navigate research.

It invites readers to position equity as the driving principle and purpose of this field and presents a plethora of examples that demonstrate how to navigate the complex work of centring equity in research. This book provides foundational content on the standards of guiding equity considerations in global health, with chapters adopting cross-disciplinary methods of engaging in equity thinking and doing. Chapters explore applications of six distinct elements of the CCGHR Principles for Global Health Research, including partnering authentically, embracing inclusion, sharing benefits, committing to the future, acting on causes of inequities and practicing humility. Each chapter is accompanied with engaging reflection questions.

This book is a pivotal resource for those who perform, use or support global equity health research. It will appeal to students, researchers, policy makers, professionals and funders, as well as those with an interest in and commitment to centring equity in their approaches to doing, using, or supporting health research.

Elijah Bisung, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen’s University at Kingstion. His primary area of research focuses on social and environmental production of health and wellbeing. His broad areas of interest and scholarly contributions include collective action for health promotion, environmental stress and psychosocial health, community based participatory research, women’s empowerment and health, and water security and health. His work is grounded on critical questions around values and (unintended) consequences of research on marginalized and oppressed populations.

Katrina M. Plamondon (she/her) is an assistant professor and Michael Smith Health Research BC scholar at the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, and she lives on the traditional and unceded territory of the Syilx People. As an Indigenous woman scholar of Cree and settler ancestry and a registered nurse, Katrina grounds her work as an equity scholar in critical anti-oppressive pedagogy and relational theory and practices. Her research focuses on critical questions about how to facilitate integration of equity-centred principles and practices across sectors and settings, equipping people to engage in methods, partnerships, policy, and society in ways that contribute to more equitable futures. She plays a national leadership role in advancing health equity.