From Charity to Development

Christian International Health Organizations, 1945-1978

Abstract

With the exception of the Red Cross the history of non-governmental international organizations in the field of health has received less attention from historians than intergovernmental organizations and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This article takes up the challenge of redressing this by examining the origins and policies of Christian agencies such as Medicus Mundi Internationalis (International Organisation for Medical Cooperation) and the World Council of Churches Christian Medical Commission. Despite denominational and theological differences a story emerges of a common trajectory from a hospital-based focus on curative medicine to community-focused primary healthcare in the three decades or so after 1945.