Global Health Governance

The past few decades have seen a massive increase in the number of international organizations focusing on global health. Campaigns to eradicate or stem the spread of AIDS, SARS, malaria, and Ebola attest to the increasing importance of globally-oriented health organizations. These organizations may be national, regional, international, or even non-state organizations-like Medicins Sans Frontieres. One of the more important recent trends in global health governance, though, has been the rise of public-private partnerships (PPPs) where private non-governmental organizations, for-profit enterprises, and various other social entrepreneurs work hand-in-hand with governments to combat specific maladies. A primary driver for this development is the widespread belief that by joining together, PPPs will attack health problems and fund shared efforts more effectively than other systems. As Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar show in Governing Global Health, these partnerships are not only important for combating infectious diseases; they also provide models for developing solutions to a host of other serious global health challenges and questions beyond health. But what do we actually know about the accountability and effectiveness of PPPs in relation to the traditional multilaterals? According to Clinton and Sridhar, we have known very little because scholars have not accumulated enough data or developed effective ways to assess them-until now. In their analysis, they uncovered both strength and weaknesses of the model. Using principal-agent theory in which governments are the principals directing international agents of various type, they take a closer look at two major PPPs-the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria and the GAVI Alliance-and two major more traditional international organizations-the World Health Organization and the World Bank. An even-handed and thorough empirical analysis of one of the most pressing topics in world affairs, Governing Global Health will reshape our understanding of how organizations can more effectively prevent the spread of communicable diseases like AIDS and reduce pervasive chronic health problems like malnutrition.

In the light of scares about potential pandemics such as swine fever and avian flu, the issue of global health and its governance is of increasing concern to scholars and practitioners of medicine, public health, social work, and international politics alike. Providing a concise and informative introduction to how global health is governed, this book: Explores the various ways in which we understand global health governance Explains the "nuts and bolts" of the traditional institutions of global health governance, highlights key frameworks and treaties and their relative successes and failings Examines the actors in global health governance, their purpose, influence and impact Offers an in depth analysis of the effectiveness of global health interventions, focusing particularly on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Highlighting the wide variety of actors, issues and approaches involved, this work shows the complex nature of global health governance, forcing the reader to examine who or what really governs global health, to what outcome, and for whom.

This textbook outlines the fundamentals of global health, introducing it as a key element of sustainable development. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it examines the relationship between globalization and the determinants of health; This book is ideal for students and professionals with an interest in global health and health governance.

In recent years the spread of diseases such as AIDS, SARS and avian flu has pushed health issues towards the top of the international agenda. Such outbreaks have serious political, economic, and social consequences and remind the world of the necessity of global cooperation in order to deal effectively with the challenges they pose. Global Health Governance offers a comprehensive introduction to the changing international legal environment, the governmental and non-governmental actors involved with health issues, and the current regime’s ability to adapt to new crises. Part 1 focuses on the evolution of international regulations aimed at stopping the spread of health problems across borders. Over the last 150 years, the nature of such cooperation, the motivations of the parties involved, and the diseases covered, has changed radically. Part 2 examines some of the most prominent actors in global health governance today, ranging from traditional intergovernmental organizations, such as the WHO and the World Bank, to private philanthropic organizations that exist outside regular global governance structures. Part 3 concentrates on some of the most pressing issues facing global health governance today, including access to pharmaceuticals, the costs and benefits of making health a security issue, and the role of civil society organizations. Global Health Governance provides an accessible and insightful analysis of an evolving realm of global governance and cooperation. It will appeal to students of global health politics, global governance, international organization, and human security.

Diseases do not recognize national borders, and as we are gradually learning, failure to govern health effectively at a global level profoundly affects us all. This book is about how global health governance has evolved to become stronger, more complex, and more important than ever before in history.

The devastating effects of HIV/AIDS have propelled a multiplicity of activities at global, national and local level. This book is based on in-depth studies of the major global institutions in health, the role of pharmaceutical corporations, the functions of NGOs, and national responses to HIV/AIDS in two key case studies: Brazil and South Africa.

Institutions matter for the advancement of human rights in global health. Given the dramatic development of human rights under international law and the parallel proliferation of global institutions for public health, there arises an imperative to understand the implementation of human rights through global health governance. This volume examines the evolving relationship between human rights, global governance, and public health, studying an expansive set of health challenges through a multi-sectoral array of global organizations. To analyze the structural determinants of rights-based governance, the organizations in this volume include those international bureaucracies that implement human rights in ways that influence public health in a globalizing world. This volume brings together leading health and human rights scholars and practitioners from academia, non-governmental organizations, and the United Nations system. They explore the foundations of human rights as a normative framework for global health governance, the mandate of the World Health Organization to pursue a human rights-based approach to health, the role of inter-governmental organizations across a range of health-related human rights, the influence of rights-based economic governance on public health, and the focus on global health among institutions of human rights governance. Contributing chapters each map the distinct human rights efforts within a specific institution of global governance for health. Through the comparative institutional analysis in this volume, the contributing authors examine institutional dynamics to operationalize human rights in organizational policies, programs, and practices and assess institutional factors that facilitate or inhibit human rights mainstreaming for global health advancement.

This book argues that the rise of institutions and organizations dedicated to global health-global health governance-has emerged, grown, and proven itself resilient over the past generation because international society has come to understand addressing global health as part of a larger sense of moral responsibility and obligation.