Thinking Locally, Acting Globally?

The motto "Think Global, Act Local" seems to have originated with Patrick Geedes, a Scottish urban planner of the early 20th century, the term "global" invoking environmental inclusiveness rather than the worldwide perspective we un- derstand it to mean today. In the 1970s to 1990s, the rising media and public interest in the human, social and ecological environment gave the term "global" its modern geopolitical dimen- sion: that of the planet earth and the 4 billion people who lived on it. In health, thinking globally encourages a worldwide vision of what is done, not done, and should be done to alleviate equitably the burden of disease and causes of ill health. Acting locally is a call on people to become the active participants, no longer the passive subjects, of what is being done for and by them.

The primary health care (PHC) movement borne out of the Alma-Ata declaration of 1978 (World Health Organization. Declaration of Alma-Ata. Available at: http://www.who.int/ publications/almaata_declaration_en.pdf. Accessed August...