It’s hard to imagine a world without borders. Yet for most of human history that’s exactly what life was like. Yes, of course there have always been natural borders, like mountain ranges and bodies of water that restrict travel, but formal political borders that divide countries are a more recent phenomenon. In fact, over half of all national borders were created in the 20th century. The creation of borders is for the most part a sad history marked by conflict, colonialism, and war.

Borders create unnecessary and harmful barriers not just between people and resources but also ideas.

Consider this: A 2023 survey conducted by Candid amongst people working in philanthropy found that 66 percent of US funders’ grantmaking is not informed or inspired by global ideas. Given the myriad of interconnected problems the world is facing, it’s a number that should be troubling to anyone.

But this is particularly unnerving to me. As a multiracial person—and as an anthropologist by training—I intentionally cross boundaries in every aspect of my life, from household decor to food to my own values. With over 20 years of experience working on global health, and now as the person who directs global learning strategies for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the largest health and health care foundation in the United States, I’ve seen directly how ideas developed in one place can improve health in another. Community health workers represent perhaps the most impactful example: A concept that originated in Chinese barefoot doctors is now a core element of most health systems around the globe.

Unequal health outcomes are sadly not unique to the United States. Too many global health crises, rooted in inequity, play out in silos or isolation across every continent. Yet we know, as studies have confirmed, that some communities and countries are making greater progress in addressing them than others. Both problems and solutions are inequitably distributed.

There are many reasons for not seeking or spreading ideas from one country to another. We know that country of origin bias, the idea that we judge the merit of an idea based on our attitudes about the country from which it came, is real. Journalists tell us that the stories they write about domestic issues gain much larger readership than those about global issues—perhaps a form of proximity bias, where we instinctively favor people and/or ideas that are physically closer to us. We also have systems of knowledge that center the English language and predominantly view high-income, Western countries as authoritative.

Whatever the reason, we must realize there is much we can learn from each other when it comes to solving the world's most pressing problems—and act accordingly.

Read the full article about global health by Karabi Acharya at Stanford Social Innovation Review.