RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Antiracism in leading public health universities, journals and funders: commitments, accountability and the decision-makers
JF BMJ Global Health
JO BMJ Global Health
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e010376
DO 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010376
VO 8
IS 3
A1 Afifah Rahman-Shepherd
A1 Ngozi A Erondu
A1 Bakht Anwar
A1 Ezekiel Boro
A1 Thuy Duyen Chau
A1 Renzo R Guinto
A1 Lara Hollmann
A1 Jerome Alan Mejarito
A1 Muneera A Rasheed
A1 Mishal Khan
YR 2023
UL http://gh.bmj.com/content/8/3/e010376.abstract
AB Introduction Two years since the murder of George Floyd, there has been unprecedented attention to racial justice by global public health organisations. Still, there is scepticism that attention alone will lead to real change.Methods We identified the highest-ranked 15 public health universities, academic journals and funding agencies, and used a standardised data extraction template to analyse the organisation’s governance structures, leadership dynamics and public statements on antiracism since 1 May 2020.Results We found that the majority of organisations (26/45) have not made any public statements in response to calls for antiracism actions, and that decision-making bodies are still lacking diversity and representation from the majority of the world’s population. Of those organisations that have made public statements (19/45), we identified seven types of commitments including policy change, financial resources, education and training. Most commitments were not accompanied by accountability measures, such as setting goals or developing metrics of progress, which raises concerns about how antiracism commitments are being tracked, as well as how they can be translated into tangible action.Conclusion The absence of any kind of public statement paired with the greater lack of commitments and accountability measures calls into question whether leading public health organisations are concretely committed to racial justice and antiracism reform.Data are available on reasonable request. The data in this research were extracted from publicly available sources, namely organisational websites. The authors may provide the collation and analysis of the data upon reasonable request.