Global health is the health of populations in a worldwide context

Global health should not be confused with international health, which is defined as the branch of public health focusing on foreign aid efforts by developing nations and industrialized countries.

One way global health can be measured is by the prevalence of various global diseases in the world and their current threat to reduce life expectancy. Estimates suggest that in the pre-modern, impoverished world, life expectancy was around 30 years in all regions of the world (mainly due to high infant mortality). Another holistic perspective called One Health can be used to address global health challenges and improve global health security.

The main agency concerned with global health (and international health) is the World Health Organization (WHO). Other important agencies affecting global health include UNICEF and the World Food Program (WFP). The United Nations system has also played a part in cross-sectoral actions to address global health and its underlying socioeconomic determinants with the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals and the more recent Sustainable Development Goals.

Global health as a discipline is widely acknowledged to be of imperial origin and its need for decolonization is widely recognized. The global health ecosystem has also been criticized for having a feudal structure, operating for a small group of institutions and individuals located in high-income countries, acting like an imperial "crown". Some of the key leaders of the decolonizing global health movement are Seye Abimbola and Madhukar Pai.

Several major initiatives were launched in the 2000s, including the Vaccine Alliance GAVI in 2000, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in 2002, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in 2003, and the US President's Emergency Relief Plan. In 2003. 2003. As part of the Decade and the Monterrey Consensus (which did not push the targets as aggressively as many activists had urged), more emphasis was placed on measuring improvements in health outcomes rather than just the amount of spending.