24/09/2026
Key Takeaways from Mesoamerica
The Mesoamerica Regional Feedback Webinar brought the Solidarity Principles back into conversation with the region, creating space to examine how they resonate with lived realities and where they could be strengthened. The discussion moved beyond defining solidarity to consider the conditions needed to make it possible in practice.
Here are some of the ideas that stood out:
🔸 Solidarity takes time. Trust, mutuality and sustained relationships cannot be created through brief engagements or one-off projects. The discussion highlighted the need for institutions and funding models that give relationships the time and continuity they need to develop.
🔸 The question of “who” matters. Alongside asking what solidarity is, how it should be practised and what it should achieve, the conversation drew attention to who gets to define priorities, make decisions, control resources and determine what successful global health action looks like.
🔸 Solidarity should change power relationships. Moving beyond charity or assistance means confronting the inequalities that make support necessary in the first place. Participants emphasised greater recognition of local expertise and more meaningful sharing of resources, responsibility and decision-making.
🔸 Good intentions are not enough. For solidarity to endure, it cannot depend solely on committed individuals. It needs to become part of how institutions work, how partnerships are structured, how resources are allocated and how future global health professionals are educated.
🔸 Context should shape how solidarity is practised.The conversation also brought attention to Indigenous and ancestral knowledge, community organisation, territory, food, water and the environment as integral to understandings of health. Putting solidarity into practice therefore requires taking seriously the knowledge, histories and realities of the communities involved.
A sincere thank you to Dr. Jean Carlo Segura Aparicio, Carolina Bolaños Palmieri and Dr. María Luisa Ávila Agüero for sharing their perspectives, and to Dr. Gabriela Arguedas-Ramírez for leading and facilitating the conversation.
We are equally grateful to everyone who joined us and contributed questions, experiences and reflections. These insights will feed into the next refinement of the Solidarity Principles and our ongoing work to translate them into practical, context-sensitive tools.
More from the Mesoamerica conversation, including the full webinar recording, will be shared soon.
Stay tuned for details of our next Regional Feedback Webinar, as the conversation continues with Francophone Africa.
Gaby Arguedas
