Hello, and greetings from the Seoul National University Center for Global Health Research (SNU CGHR).

The field of global health is passing through a period of structural transition. Amid rising geopolitical tensions, it faces declining Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Development Assistance for Health (DAH), while at the same time undergoing reform of the WHO-centered global health architecture. As in other areas of development cooperation, these changes raise fundamental questions about the effectiveness, equity, and sustainability of global health collaboration. Against this backdrop, there is a growing consensus—in Asia as well—that policymakers, researchers, and practitioners in global health need a shared space to discuss these pressing issues together.

As a first step, the SNU CGHR and the Global Health Research Center (GHRC) of Duke Kunshan University (DKU) in China co-organized and held the First China–Korea Forum on Global Health Development, as shown in the poster below.

The theme of the forum was Global Health Collaboration in Transition: China–Korea Perspectives on Effectiveness, Equity, and Sustainability. As a starting point, participants examined what forms of collaboration are needed to advance global health development in this period of structural transition—focusing on effectiveness, equity, and sustainability from the perspectives of policymakers, researchers, and practitioners in Korea and China. This year’s discussions will continue, with greater depth, at the Second Forum to be held next year at Duke Kunshan University in China. We hope that this First China–Korea Forum on Global Health Development has offered an occasion to reflect on how the global health community—across Korea, China, and beyond Asia—can carry out its work in a more equitable and more enduring way. We are grateful for the strong interest and participation the forum received, and we look forward to your continued interest and engagement going forward.

Thank you!