Realizing Global Health Justice? Dutch-India Civic Cooperation in Strengthening Healthcare Systems in New Delhi

Health capabilities are the basic human needs, without them our body cannot function (Ruger 2010: 81, Nussbaum 2008: 4). Health capabilities are embedded in a global health justice (GHJ) approach whose aspirations were used in this research to understand the health partnership of Oxfam India and Oxfam Novib. Introducing the approach basically opened up an enriching perspective on promoting health equity. The research showed that the GHJ approach is broader than the rights-based approaches to health (RBAH) but both approaches aim to tackle health disparities with competing yet complementary procedures. Through the aspirations of a GHJ approach, some health issues regained a central focus. Despite the sample size was limited; the respondents’ views showed that the GHJ approach’s value-added insights may complement the RBAH in the work of partner Oxfams. The research results highlighted that a GHJ approach would inspire the NGOs to respond to health disparities by promoting cooperation in health care, tackling ill-health conditions at a community level, influencing change in health legislations, strengthening healthcare systems and ensuring their efficient functioning. All the above responded to the main and three sub-research questions. I concluded the research that a GHJ is not a-one-size-fits-all but still a relevant approach. While the value-added insights may be applied in the researched area of New Delhi by the two Oxfam partners, it does not mean that the other approaches such as RBAH no longer apply. The GHJ approach which embraced health capabilities critically had some limitations related to the lack of clear theorisation, being too narrow with no sufficient attention to power relations, universalistic and formulated at a highly abstract level. Therefore, choosing an approach would depend on particular area’s realities in the work of the NGOs or other health justice actors.