ABSTRACT:
The global health landscape faces an unprecedented crisis triggered by abrupt and significant funding cuts from major Global North actors, most notably the United States of America (USA). These are causing catastrophic human consequences, reversing decades of progress and leading to millions of additional deaths while severely disrupting health systems, particularly in the Global South. This narrative review synthesizes current perspectives on this unfolding crisis. Utilizing a flexible narrative literature review approach, the study incorporates both peer-reviewed and grey literature, with a focus on Global South voices and perspectives. The search process involved purposive selection of literature, followed by backward and forward citation tracking across diverse academic, organizational, and governmental sources. Issues of aid dependency, vulnerability, and the undermining of local health systems have been starkly exposed, with aid models often perpetuating neocolonial power dynamics and primarily serving donor geopolitical and economic interests rather than fostering genuine self-sufficiency in recipient nations. This critical juncture, however, presents a crucial opportunity for transformative change, compelling the Global South to accelerate its journey towards self-reliance and redefine its healthcare agendas. Moving forward, authors from the Global South call for a fundamental shift from saviorism to justice, equity, and self-determination, with Global North actors urged to embrace ruinous solidarity that involves actively dismantling existing power structures and deepening the local collaboration. Ultimately, decolonization demands valuing Indigenous and non-Global North knowledge systems and a collective effort to dismantle existing structures of oppression for an equitable global health landscape.