Project Description
The Regional Health Governance Study (RHGS) is a multidisciplinary initiative that investigates how regional frameworks can strengthen equitable pandemic preparedness and health governance across regions. Emerging from the recognition that COVID-19 revealed deep inequities and fragmentation in global health systems, the RHGS explores how regional institutions such as Africa CDC can complement and enhance the global governance institutions such as WHO. By bridging global health law, policy, and human rights, the project aims to develop a regionalized model of pandemic management that decentralizes decision-making, enhances solidarity among member states, and strengthens institutional accountability. It operates as both a research platform and a vehicle for knowledge mobilization, engaging scholars, policymakers, and civil society partners in co-producing solutions that advance health equity, human rights, and governance resilience.
Objectives
The RHGS seeks to:
- Create actionable frameworks to enhance regional health systems, focussing on resilience and preparedness for future health crises.
- Identify common health governance issues & regional disparities
- Discuss solutions that are tailored to each country and each region’s unique needs
- Promote collaboration between countries and organizations to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes
Mission Statement
The mission of the RHGS is to reimagine global health governance through regional solidarity, equity, and human rights. Grounded in the principle that health is a shared responsibility, the study strives to build inclusive, regionally driven systems that empower states and communities to collaboratively prevent, respond to, and recover from health crises. RHGS operationalizes this mission through interdisciplinary research, stakeholder engagement, and policy translation, ensuring that scholarly insights inform tangible frameworks capable of addressing systemic inequities exposed by global emergencies such as COVID-19.
Research Focus Areas
01. Regional Approaches to Global Health Governance
RHGS investigates how regional health governance frameworks can complement and strengthen global mechanisms. The study critiques the limitations of centralized, one-size-fits-all approaches and proposes regionally grounded, context-sensitive governance models that emphasize solidarity, accountability, and equity.
02. Human Rights and Health Systems Strengthening
A central research area of RHGS is the integration of human rights principles into pandemic management and broader health governance. RHGS examines how human rights institutions can operationalize the right to health in emergency contexts and institutionalize equity and justice across governance frameworks.
03. Decolonizing Global Health and Equity-Driven Policy
The study situates decolonization as both a conceptual and operational pillar. It explores how regional governance can redistribute decision-making power to historically marginalized states and communities, particularly those in the Global South. RHGS advances an academic agenda that challenges dependency on Northern-led global frameworks.
04. Pandemic Preparedness, Implementation Science, and Policy Translation
RHGS conducts comparative analyses of pandemic responses to identify institutional, legal, and policy barriers to preparedness. This area emphasizes the translation of research into actionable, co-produced frameworks that enhance regional resilience and health system responsiveness during crises
05. Cross-Regional Collaboration and Knowledge Mobilization
RHGS serves as a multi-continental platform for collaborative learning across regions. Its projects apply regional governance principles to real-world policy contexts, bridging research, community engagement, and institutional partnerships. This area focuses on building communities of practice, strengthening institutional capacity, and mobilizing knowledge to inform both policy and academic discourse