Health Diplomacy drives global health governance by helping countries collaborate, shape health policies, and build international relationships. Health diplomacy through public-private partnerships (PPPs) has become more important as globalization continues to link public health challenges. PPPs are particularly effective in enhancing disaster preparation and promoting health equity. Despite its increasing significance, there is an absence of thorough scholarly research that integrates the essential attributes of health diplomacy and its multidimensional influence on health equity.

Objective

The objective of this paper is to identify essential attribute of health diplomacy and investigate the role of PPPs in promoting health equity at local, global, and glocal levels.

Methods

Following Arksey and O'Malley’s scoping review framework, we conducted a systematic search across PubMed, Scopus, and PsycINFO, yielding 494 articles. Our inclusion criteria focused on peer-reviewed publications that conceptualize or analyze health diplomacy, with an emphasis on its role in fostering PPPs and promoting health equity. We selected 47 articles that met the criteria and performed thematic analysis using Dedoose.

Results

Our scoping review found fundamental attributes of health diplomacy in promoting health equity via PPPs. These include fortifying collaborative governance, emergency readiness, and aligning with sustainable development goals. Our results indicate that at the local level, health diplomacy have strengthened community health systems by improving resource mobilization, cooperation among NGOs, and capacity development for digital innovations using PPPs. Health diplomacy is critical at the global level for advancing equitable access to vital medications, improving pandemic preparation, and enabling coordinated responses to public health crises via multisectoral cooperation. At the glocal level, health diplomacy helps address PPPs to transnational health challenges, such as non-communicable diseases, while ensuring that global health policies are adapted to fit local contexts effectively.

Conclusions

This scoping review illustrates the key role of health diplomacy in leveraging PPPs to address health inequities. By fostering collaborative governance, enhancing emergency preparedness, and ensuring equitable access to health resources, health diplomacy serves as a key driver in building resilient health systems. Strengthening health diplomacy efforts would help build resilient health systems and promote health equity globally.