On February 2, 2026, at the age of 80, David Legge – a founding member of the People’s Health Movement, and one of the most iconic, respected and loved leaders of the global struggles for people’s health – passed away.
His life and legacy will always be celebrated for the two outstanding leadership roles he has played. The first of these is his contribution as a thought leader and theoretical guide for developing the discipline of public health based on a comprehensive understanding of the political economy of health. His vision on this issue was not limited to public health. It was a comprehensive analysis of the causes of global inequity and injustice and a condemnation of exploitation and oppression in its very many forms. And the second contribution is his role in developing the People’s Health Movement (PHM).
A prolific writer, speaker and teacher on the political economy of health
David was born in Sydney in 1944, and lived most of his life in Melbourne. His professional career began as an internist physician who practiced for a few years, before moving into health policy, health services research and public health. After six years as a practitioner of public health in the Victorian Health Department in the 1980s, he went into academia, initially in the Australian National University (ANU) and then at La Trobe University. From 1996 to 2012 he was involved in teaching public health, health policy and health services management in Melbourne and in China. The latter included researching the health challenges associated with China’s economic and political transition. His academic work was never separated from his activism. From 1994 he was active in the International People’s Health Council, and since the birth of the People’s Health Movement in Savar, Bangladesh, in December 2000, he has remained active with it until his final days. In 2004, David received the Public Health Association of Australia’s (PHAA) highest award, the Sidney Sax Medal, in recognition of his expertise and commitment not just to public health as a discipline but to the health and wellbeing of all people.
For many of us in health movements today, and certainly for myself personally, the very first time we heard David was when he presented his powerful public critique of the World Bank’s interventions in health and development in the first People’s Health Assembly. Since then, over the next 25 years, he has been the most prolific writer, speaker and teacher on the political economy of health and healthcare within the PHM. For every article published under his name, there are many more attributed to the PHM collective or one of its programs, where he has made a major intellectual contribution, often in the form of the first draft. The latter includes his contributions to each and every one of the seven editions of the Global Health Watch that have been published.
The International People’s Health University and WHO Tracker
Another context where many PHM activists came to know David was as one of the faculty in the short-term courses on the political economy of health, health rights and health movements organized by the International People’s Health University, a global PHM program, under his leadership. We can never forget the rigor he put into planning every academic session, the efforts invested to ensure that systems were participatory and the warmth of his personal interactions as he interacted with participants, mentoring and encouraging them on. Beyond the IPHU, his guidance in writing position papers, policy briefs, pamphlets and resolutions built the capacity of PHM to emerge as one of the leading organizations resisting the ravages of imperialist and neo-imperialist policies on the health of people and as a strong advocate for health equity and health rights worldwide.
David also helped shape PHM’s Democratizing Global Health Governance program, perhaps best known through the WHO Watch. A major part of this work involved his curation of the WHO Tracker, a website which maintains a dynamic record of all agenda items and discussions of every World Health Assembly, and the preceding Executive Board meetings, over the last 20+ years, along with a PHM comment on each of these. A number of PHM scholars from across the world contributed to these comments, but the lion’s share of the work was done by David, whose expertise and insights extended across the entire range of global health policy issues. To most civil society associations engaging with the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the representatives of many Member States from the Global South, these comments were the only source of alternative critical analysis to the dominant discourse put forth by WHO and other global health institutions.
Leaving nothing to chance
David Legge was known for his vision, his towering intellect, his omnivorous knowledge, and his skills at written communication. But that did not detract from his tremendous ability to listen to activists from different country circles and regions share new ideas or differing perspectives and priorities. He would welcome and readily incorporate many of these ideas and perspectives into the PHM comments and position papers. But when it was so needed, he would also be pushing back with sharp comments, challenging them to strengthen their arguments and say more or do more than what they had set out to do.
With regard to organization, he brought in a gentle wisdom and much patience, and also the ability to make use of every space and opportunity to strengthen the PHM network further. His modesty, his humility, his patience, his quiet persistence, his kindness and compassion were role models for those who worked closely with him, urging them by example to change themselves too in the process of working to change the world. His wry, tongue-in-cheek humor too was a delight. And leaving nothing to chance, David Legge, this methodical genius, in addition to leaving us the WHO Tracker, the Political Economy for Health blog site and the CDIH Archive, also created a personal website where he left a lot of his carefully curated writings and presentations.
His legacy compels us to do better. He lives on in our memories and in our work.
T Sundararaman is a professor in health systems studies, an activist in India’s Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, and a former Global Coordinator of PHM.
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