Dear reader,

Medicus Mundi Switzerland – Network Health for All mandated the authors with providing a report on how the civil society members of the Medicus Mundi Switzerland Network have taken up the call for decolonization and, more particularly, for decolonizing international cooperation, and what can be done to push this process much further.

Collecting the voices of members of the Medicus Mundi Switzerland Network (MMS), the report ranges from general assessments (what the problem is) to perspectives for the sector (what is to be done) and to more concrete perspectives for the organizations engaged in health cooperation (what we will actually do) and Medicus Mundi Switzerland (what you can do for us, what we can do together). The proposals we have collected are not revolutionary, and they are positioned within the overall terms and realities of the sector. But taking them up and walking the talk from discussing to actively undertaking decolonization is already a challenge.

By commissioning this report, Medicus Mundi Switzerland is daring to highlight the issue of coloniality, power, dependency, inherent racism, and unequal partnerships in international health cooperation at a moment when the Network is celebrating its 50th anniversary, as an effort to bridge the past and the future. Congratulations on both your jubilee and your efforts thus far.

In compiling and assessing the information on which this report is based, the authors have learnt a lot. We have a better understanding of the honesty and courage it takes for organizations based in Switzerland to fully engage in a difficult conversation that touches on the core of their work and existence and in which there are no easy answers.

At the end of this endeavour, we are keen to talk more, to learn more about different views on coloniality and decoloniality, and to explore ways into achieving lived solidarity and joint engagement for the common cause of health and social justice.

Labila Sumayah Musoke and Thomas Schwarz
November 2023

Download PDF: Report
Download PDF: Slides of the presentation of the report
MMI contributions to the MMS Symposium, 2 November 2023: here