The promise and failure of global health: Women’s healthcare amid the rising burden of chronic health conditions in northeastern Tanzania

Smith, Rachel

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/114082 Copy

Description

Title

The promise and failure of global health: Women’s healthcare amid the rising burden of chronic health conditions in northeastern Tanzania

Author(s)

Smith, Rachel

Issue Date

2021-12-02

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Dill, Brian

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Dill, Brian

Committee Member(s)

• Zerai, Assata
• Gille, Zsuzsa
• Tabb DIna, Karen

Department of Study

Sociology

Discipline

Sociology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Tanzania
• global health
• women's health
• chronic disease
• non-communicable diseases

Abstract

This thesis interrogates the discourse and practice of global health in northeastern Tanzania. It investigates how the rising burden of chronic health conditions complicates the provision of women’s healthcare and presents new challenges for national and global health initiatives. Across sub-Saharan Africa, processes of urbanization, globalization and changing lifestyles are altering regimes of social reproduction and increasing health risks for women with both a high rate of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Creating policies and dedicating resources that meet these challenges in Tanzania, as well as in neighboring countries, requires a deeper understanding of local healthcare realities as well as the inclusion of women’s health priorities, and perspectives on accessing care - something that previous women’s health initiatives have failed to do. This research project utilized participant-observation ethnography and semi-structured interviews with women and healthcare providers at several different healthcare sites in an urban setting in Northeastern Tanzania. This research demonstrates the mismatch between the priorities of Western-led global health initiatives that target women’s health in the country and the priorities of women themselves. It also historicizes and contextualizes biomedicine, and shows how dramatically different healthcare realities in high and low-resource settings present limitations to the Western biomedical model typically exported in global health initiatives. Lastly, it highlights the contradictions between global health discourse – which emphasizes equity and partnership – and the realities of global health in practice in this Tanzanian setting.

Graduation Semester

2021-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/114082

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2021 Rachel Smith

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