Global health. The current scenario and future perspectives

281 Key Findings from a Multi-Country Study: The Chilean Perspective on Global Health Diplomacy To address these inquiries, a study was initiated in 2016 with technical guidance and funding from the University of Ottaw a 43 with participation of researchers from Chile, Canada, Brazil and Mexico. By employing a qualitative methodology that encompassed document analysis and interviews with key stakeholders, each country aimed to delineate the prevailing dynamics of Global Health Diplomacy by encompassing explicit discourse and implicit elements from official documents and diplomats’ interpretations. While some scientific publications have already emerged at both individual country levels (Guerra et al., 2021; Proulx et al., 2017; Ramírez et al., 2018) and collectively (Ruckert et al., 2021), others are still in progress. Data collection and initial analyses were conducted before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. In Chile, a narrative literature review (Ramírez et al., 2018) concluded, albeit in a broad sense due to the limited number of articles on the topic, that health actions in international relations are “primarily motivated by more traditional foreign policy interests rather than a desire to meet health needs per se”. Nevertheless, there are indications that solidarity and consideration for health have gained greater prominence within diplomatic objectives, particularly in relation to South-South cooperation initiatives in which Chile has been involved. These initial insights were further explored through an analysis of related grey literature 44 , affirming the tendency to frame health issues within international politics as part of the national security sphere, especially in the analysis of international trade agreements involving Chile. Moreover, the prevalence of neoliberal economic aspects throughout foreign policy, specifically in health matters, is notable and likely serves as the primary motivation behind diplomatic actions in health. However, certain specific elements hint at the abandonment of traditional modes of operation in international health relations. Regional integration (or South-South collaboration), interaction with international institutions from a human rights perspective and efforts to prioritize health considerations over commercial interests are notable in this regard. 43 Grant number 136927 “Canadian Institutes of Health Research”. 44 Some of these findings are incorporated in the Preliminary Work Report from the Chilean team’s review of grey literature. Together with the analysis of interviews, they will contribute to future academic publications.