gms | German Medical Science

Germany's increased engagement in global health builds on many years of experience in bilateral and multilateral activities in health. However, compared to neighbouring European countries, Germany has few structures and qualified scientific personnel in the field of global child health, this makes it difficult to address relevant issues systematically and scientifically. Partnership-based research and teaching oriented towards the needs of resource-poor countries is limited and to date there is no institute for global child health in Germany. In the political sphere, there is currently a partnership focus on Africa – also in the area of health. Especially in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the greatest burden of disease currently lies with children. There is a need of partnerships that jointly strengthen good clinical research as well as teaching and training of local health workers, thereby also improve the long-term health of vulnerable groups such as children. For these reasons, we will explore the chances and challenges the consented effort of a tandem professorship in global child health will bring along and use child health as an example to shed light on the success of academic cooperation in general.