Global Health and Systems Change

The emergent global health challenges make clear that we have so far failed to engage effectively with the intersections and interactions of health with the multitude of other complex systems and determinants. This chapter argues for the need for a systems-wide approach to these emerging global health challenges. This requires viewing these challenges through the various lenses of complexity science which include systems science, systems behavior, systems dynamics, and systems networks. The most important prerequisite can be found in the power of systems networks and partnerships. Major stakeholders and practitioners at all levels need the capability to at least understand the connections across their organizational silos. Connecting global health actors working in different spatial scales of the health system is critical to developing the pervasive systemic sensibility and literacy that is essential for systemic approaches to take root in global health.