Challenges and Prospects of Sustainability in the Context of Global Health: 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

We have the pleasure of inviting you to contribute to the second edition of our Special Issue, “Challenges and Prospects of Sustainability in the Context of Global Health: 2nd Edition”. The recent COVID-19 pandemic underlined once more the global interrelatedness of all our activities. A regionalized, even fragmented world—as it was—is converging rapidly at the beginning of the 21st century. Countries embark increasingly on global arrangements and a globalizing civil society connects across borders, supported by mobile technologies. At the same time, unprecedented waves of migration diversify the northern societies, depleting the qualified workforce in the south (1).

In a globalized world, there are no isolated places; problems and solutions transcend national borders, require international cooperation, and lead to a growing interconnectedness of countries. Global health is an area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide. It emphasizes transnational health issues, determinants, and solutions; involves many disciplines within and beyond the health sciences; and is a synthesis of population-based prevention with individual-level clinical care (2).

Today, the Sustainable Development Goals are a cornerstone for a minimum set of standards in moving toward global equity in health service delivery, and leadership in global health issues encompasses all levels of society.

The global health challenges are numerous and complex and concern the common problems of all people on the planet. Global warming, global divisions, and global security are considered of strategic importance, as they represent a generational challenge for sustainable development and future generations' health. Numerous global health challenges are interrelated, such as global warming and natural and human-made disasters, floods, drinking water shortages, and deforestation, contributing to the loss of demographic balance, economic divisions, forced migration, poverty, and hunger endangering entire populations. At the same time, in the analysis of global health problems and challenges, there is a well-known rule that is expressed as a ratio of 10/90 and which represents a considerable limitation in overcoming global health problems: 90% of financial resources are directed to improving the health of only 10% of the world's population. The burden of not only contagious but also chronic non-communicable diseases and injuries affects the poorest countries in the world. 

Global health requires cooperation, coordination, and opportunities to exchange ideas and learn from experiences and examples of good practice. The goal is to develop joint action that will protect and improve the health of all people in the world. It is an extensive multi-sectoral area that connects the main areas of development policy, humanitarian aid, research and health, trade, and international policy. Today, health has become one of the global priorities, resulting from undoubted scientific evidence on the connection between health and economic development. This approach is reflected in a strong global commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. Examples of pandemics, such as COVID-19, show how health is becoming a global issue affecting all sectors of the economy and politics and requires coordinated international responses. Stakeholders involved in multilateral cooperation in addressing critical global health issues require additional learning, which encompasses two sectors: the health sector and foreign affairs.

• A Global Public Health Curriculum (2nd Edition, 2016), South Eastern European Journal of Public Health (SEEJPH). doi: 10.4119/seejph-1828.
• Kоplan PJ, et al. Towards a common definition of global health. The Lancet. 2009;373:1993-5.

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Laaser
Prof. Dr. Vesna Bjegovic-Mikanovic
Guest Editors

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• global health
• global burden of disease
• pandemics
• universal health coverage
• peace and solidarity
• inclusive health governance
• bottom-up initiatives
• gender equity