Global health diplomacy: conceptual framework proposal

Abstract

The aim of this article is to build, from the publications on global health diplomacy (GHD), a representation of this field of knowledge, its main concepts and features. We searched the literature in PubMed database for publications on the subject until August 2016. The keywords and inclusion criteria selected 54 publications that composed the final sample. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative information, by the thematic content analysis. Publications on the subject began in 1970, but 85.2% of the studies cover the period from 2007 to 2014. With the content analysis of the results of this scientific production, we produced a conceptual theoretical model covering the following subjects of GHD: health diplomacy concept; use of diplomacy in international cooperation with research; health diplomacy as a tool for strengthening foreign policy; strategies for strengthening the diplomacy of global health and international cooperation among countries; health diplomacy strengthening global health; health as a common good among the nations in globalization; health diplomacy challenges to strengthen global health. GHD comprises country strategies and international cooperation to strengthen global health and is a tool for strengthening the foreign policy of nations. The major challenges of GHD are to promote international cooperation in research, train human resources from this area and emancipate emerging countries based on ongoing interventions.