Why a Global Alliance

The Alliance fills a critical gap in the global health architecture, bringing together a diverse and global network of researchers, practitioners, advocates, academics, policy stakeholders and others, breaking down geographic, disciplinary and sectoral siloes to work towards a world without war, where health is protected, justice upheld and peace promoted.

Current gaps and unmet needs

Many individuals, organizations, and initiatives have made several common critical observations, and identified a shared set of unmet needs, regarding the current status of war, conflict and health globally:

  • Many individual initiatives (in research, scholarship, advocacy, and practice) from across the world engage in important work in the area of war/conflict and health. However, given the sheer burden of wars and armed conflicts in our world today, this area still receives insufficient attention. Crucially, existing efforts are largely directed towards war/conflict-health dimensions, but less attention is afforded to peace-health dimensions.

  • Research and scholarship on war, conflict and health are siloed. Few links join up key related fields, e.g. conflict or peace studies.

  • Researchers and institutions from the Global South are under-represented in this field, in leadership, research, publication and engagement, despite living the burden of conflict and producing often under-recognised but valuable research.

  • Attention and leadership from the global health and academic communities are increasing, but insufficient. Additionally, the role of global health in relation to war and conflict largely involves essential lifesaving operational activities during armed conflict and documenting the effects of wars during and after battle, but limited attention is paid to long term effects of war/conflict, prevention of war in the first instance, and peace-health links.

  • Collaborative platforms engaged in this space tend to target a particular professional group, address a specific issue or draw their member base from a defined geographic area. Additionally, most such platforms are headquartered in the Global North, with very few led by teams or institutions in the Global South.

The evidence base

The Lancet–American University of Beirut (AUB) Commission on Syria: Health in Conflict and colleagues conducted background research to examine the evidence and take stock of the field, with preliminary findings:

  • A bibliometric analysis of literature on war and health published between 1946 and 2018 shows a growth trend but the volume remains small considering the toll.

  • A thematic scoping literature review shows local conflict-affected populations receive far less research attention compared with veterans and active military personnel.

  • A literature review of challenges to conducting research in/on war and conflict settings shows numerous contextual, methodological and administrative challenges, not least of which are safety considerations and ethical issues.

  • A review of barriers to Global South research leadership demonstrates a range of obstacles, both internal to the Global South and related to resourcing, capacities and research infrastructures, and external factors, notably the nature of partnerships and engagement of the Global North

  • Timeline analysis of the field since 1970 shows a growth of major initiatives and scholarship collaborations, many focusing on specific issues and/or specific wars. However, the scale and scope of such initiatives remain relatively small and several have been time-limited.

  • While globally there are a number of networks focusing on war, conflict and health, many of these either address a specific issue and/or are tailored to a particular professional group or geographic constituency. The vast majority of such initiatives are headquartered in the Global North, and there are currently no global collaborative platforms with a broad focus on war, conflict and health that are open to a diverse, multisectoral membership.

  • Mapping of current educational programs and research hubs show concentration in Western Europe and North America with very few initiatives in the Global South.


• Mapping of networks and collaborative platforms focussed on conflict and health demonstrates that most are headquartered in the Global North, with very few based out of the Global South.

Opportunities

The Global Alliance on War, Conflict and Health works to meet the clear need for a global collaborative platform that:

1) addresses the full spectrum of issues regarding war, conflict and health

2) has a broad, multi-disciplinary and multisectoral constituency

3) brings together existing siloed functions and entities working in this field and

4) provides a voice to scholars in the global south and young professionals.