Progress and challenges in decolonizing global health research partnerships: A scoping review

Despite recent calls for change, the field of global health continues to perpetuate unequal power dynamics due to colonization and disparate resource access. While there is research on the history of colonization in global health and a current push towards 'decolonization,' more research is needed to explore how global health partnerships between high-income countries (HICs) and low-middle-income countries (LMICs) can decolonize.

We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature published between 2011 and 2024 focused on global health decolonization in collaborative partnerships between HICs and LMICs by searching Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, ProQuest databases, and JSTOR. Primary outcomes included descriptive information on models of decolonized global health in collaborative research partnerships, progress made in decolonizing collaborative research partnerships, barriers to decolonization in collaborative research partnerships, and roles of different contemporary stakeholders in the decolonization of collaborative research partnerships.

We included 56 studies in this review. Primary themes were identified, including: 1) Decolonized global health should be equitable, including fair and equal recognition of work and cultural humility should be centered; 2) Progress has been made in the decolonizing global health movement through increased acknowledgment of the topic in education and leadership; 3) Significant barriers persist, such as implicit bias, different standards, poverty imbalance, and a lack of authority held by persons from LMICs; and 4) Individual researchers, academic institutions, and structural level stakeholder can work to combat these barriers by shifting paradigms or current structures and methods.

Findings from this review highlight the importance of equitable, participatory, and culturally humble approaches to global health research partnerships. These findings can inform future reform efforts by supporting the development of a practical checklist for decolonized global health practice to guide stakeholders in implementing these principles.