Science Summit at United Nations General Assembly 77 (UNGA77)

The colonizer mindset is alive and continuing to ripple through academia, educational institutions, healthcare centers, and communities. Rooted in an empowerment rather than dependency model, the Nuvance Health / University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine Global Health Program with active participation from domestic and international partners has gradually implemented unique features from decision-making to resource allocation, participant education to community engagement, capacity building to brain gain. We aim to shed a truthful light on a tragic past and present while evaluating our program’s components that combat and contribute to the savior complex model.
Learning objectives include an understanding of the colonial mindset in global health; the ways it weaves into global health programs administratively, pedagogically, and in clinical practice; its impact on the well-being of host institutions, patients, and communities; the steps our program has taken toward decolonization, including creation of a Global South-led taskforce and a Global South-Global South empowerment model; and ways the program hopes to grow. Examples of reverse learning and reverse innovations will be discussed.
During this session, a group of global health experts share their insights by citing examples of successes, failures, and challenges in their partnerships with the Global North.