Global Health Learning Network Event: Unpacking the Polycrisis
Transforming Capitalism’s Existential Health Threats
Apr 9, 2026 — 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Event Details
Join the Global Health Learning Network (GHLN) for a discussion on the growing concept of the polycrisis—a term used to describe the multiple, intersecting crises posing significant threats to global health.
In this talk, “Unpacking the Polycrisis: Transforming Capitalism’s Existential Health Threats,” Professor Ronald Labonté will examine the political and economic forces contributing to today’s complex global health challenges. The session will unpack several of these crises, beginning with the disruptions to health and economic order associated with Donald Trump’s second presidency and his administration’s coterie of enabling loyalists. It will identify key elements of “Donald Trump as Polycrisis” before locating them within the history of predatory capitalism and its consumptogenic necessity. The talk will conclude with a discussion of the potential for alternative economic paradigms, many of which fall under the rubric of wellbeing economics.
This event will also mark the launch of Global Health Watch 7: Mobilizing for Health Justice, the latest edition of the People’s Health Movement’s flagship publication, which informs many of the themes discussed in this talk.
About the Global Health Learning Network:
The Global Health Learning Network is a platform for knowledge growth and exchange with the goal to build a community of practice in global health that reaches across researchers, practitioners, and learners from all global health domains to include members of the public with an interest in global health.
The School of Epidemiology and Public Health, Bruyère Health, WHO Collaborating Centre for Knowledge Translation and Health Technology Assessment in Health Equity, and the International and Global Health Office (IGHO) are collaborating to host the global health learning network events.
About the Guest Speaker:
Ronald Labonté
Professor Emeritus, School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa
Ronald Labonté is Professor Emeritus and former Distinguished Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa. For the past 30 years his work has focused on the health equity impacts of diverse globalization processes.
He has authored or edited 13 books, including Health Equity in a Globalizing Era (Oxford University Press, 2021) and, most recently, New Directions in Critical Public Health (Routledge, 2026). He is Editor Emeritus of the BMC journal, Globalization and Health and is active with the People’s Health Movement (PHM) and co-editor of the 7th edition of its flagship publication Global Health Watch (Daraja Press, 2025).
In this talk, Professor Labonté will discuss the geopolitical landscape of global health in the aftermath of Trump’s second presidency, declining foreign aid, and the rise of authoritarian governance, and what these trends mean for multilateralism and civil society organizations working in global health.