Transnational Norm-Building in Global Health: The Important Role of Non-State Actors in Post-Westphalian Politics

2009 ◽  
pp. 87-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Hein ◽  
Lars Kohlmorgen
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
State Actors

scholarly journals What Makes Health Systems Resilient? A Qualitative Analysis of The Perspectives of Swiss NGOs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Yongeun Grimm ◽  
Kaspar Wyss
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Health System ◽  
Human Resource Development ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Innovative Solutions ◽  
System Resilience ◽  
State Actors

Abstract Background: Resilience has become relevant than ever before with the advent of increasing and intensifying shocks on the health system and its amplified effects due to globalization. Using the example of non-state actors based in Switzerland, the aim of this study is to explore how and to what extent NGOs with an interest in global health have dealt with unexpected shocks on the health systems of their partner countries and to reflect on the practical implications of resilience for the multiple actors involved. Consequently, this paper analyses the key attributes of resilience that targeted investments may influence, and the different roles key stakeholders may assume to build resilience. Methods: This is a descriptive and exploratory qualitative study analysing the perspectives on health system resilience of Swiss-based NGOs through 20 in-depth interviews. Analysis proceeded using a data-driven thematic analysis closely following the framework method. An analytical framework was developed and applied systematically resulting in a complete framework matrix. The results are categorised into the expected role of the governments, the role of the NGOs, and practical future steps for building health system resilience. Results: The following four key ‘foundations of resilience’ were found to be dominant for unleashing greater resilience attributes regardless of the nature of shocks: ‘realigned relationships,’ ‘foresight,’ ‘motivation,’ and ‘emergency preparedness.’ The attribute to ‘integrate’ was shown to be one of the most crucial characteristics of resilience expected of the national governments from the NGOs, which points to the heightened role of governance. Meanwhile, as a key stakeholder group that is becoming inevitably more powerful in international development cooperation and global health governance, non-state actors namely the NGOs saw themselves in a unique position to facilitate knowledge exchange and to support long-term adaptations of innovative solutions that are increasing in demand. The strongest determinant of resilience in the health system was the degree of investments made for building long-term infrastructures and human resource development which are well-functioning prior to any potential crisis. Conclusions: Health system resilience is a collective endeavour and a result of many stakeholders’ consistent and targeted investments. These investments open up new opportunities to seek innovative solutions and to keep diverse actors in global health accountable. Strong governance, a bi-directional knowledge exchange, and the focus on leveraging science for impact can draw greater potential of resilience in the health systems. Governments and the NGOs have unique points of contribution in this journey towards resilience and may support governments to prioritise investing in the key ‘foundations of resilience’ in order to activate greater attributes of resilience.

When People Come First

2013 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Moral Economy ◽  
Health Science ◽  
Health It ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
New Research ◽  
Health Enterprise ◽  
Conceptual Work

This book critically assesses the expanding field of global health. It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a more comprehensive, people-centered approach. Topics include the limits of technological quick fixes in disease control, the moral economy of global health science, the unexpected effects of massive treatment rollouts in resource-poor contexts, and how right-to-health activism coalesces with the increased influence of the pharmaceutical industry on health care. The chapters explore the altered landscapes left behind after programs scale up, break down, or move on. We learn that disease is really never just one thing, technology delivery does not equate with care, and biology and technology interact in ways we cannot always predict. The most effective solutions may well be found in people themselves, who consistently exceed the projections of experts and the medical-scientific, political, and humanitarian frameworks in which they are cast. This book sets a new research agenda in global health and social theory and challenges us to rethink the relationships between care, rights, health, and economic futures.

The Origins of Human Rights in Global Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence O. Gostin ◽  
Benjamin Mason Meier
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Global Health ◽  
International Law ◽  
Right To Health ◽  
Right To Health Care ◽  
Global Standards ◽  
The Right

This chapter introduces the foundational importance of human rights for global health, providing a theoretical basis for the edited volume by laying out the role of human rights under international law as a normative basis for public health. By addressing public health harms as human rights violations, international law has offered global standards by which to frame government responsibilities and evaluate health practices, providing legal accountability in global health policy. The authors trace the historical foundations for understanding the development of human rights and the role of human rights in protecting and promoting health since the end of World War II and the birth of the United Nations. Examining the development of human rights under international law, the authors introduce the right to health as an encompassing right to health care and underlying determinants of health, exploring this right alongside other “health-related human rights.”

The Politics of Global Health Inequalities

2019 ◽  
pp. 58-84
Author(s):  
Yusra Ribhi Shawar ◽  
Jennifer Prah Ruger
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Health Inequality ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Health ◽  
Political Determinants ◽  
The Social

Careful investigations of the political determinants of health that include the role of power in health inequalities—systematic differences in health achievements among different population groups—are increasing but remain inadequate. Historically, much of the research examining health inequalities has been influenced by biomedical perspectives and focused, as such, on ‘downstream’ factors. More recently, there has been greater recognition of more ‘distal’ and ‘upstream’ drivers of health inequalities, including the impacts of power as expressed by actors, as well as embedded in societal structures, institutions, and processes. The goal of this chapter is to examine how power has been conceptualised and analysed to date in relation to health inequalities. After reviewing the state of health inequality scholarship and the emerging interest in studying power in global health, the chapter presents varied conceptualisations of power and how they are used in the literature to understand health inequalities. The chapter highlights the particular disciplinary influences in studying power across the social sciences, including anthropology, political science, and sociology, as well as cross-cutting perspectives such as critical theory and health capability. It concludes by highlighting strengths and limitations of the existing research in this area and discussing power conceptualisations and frameworks that so far have been underused in health inequalities research. This includes potential areas for future inquiry and approaches that may expand the study of as well as action on addressing health inequality.

Exploring the role of the pharmacist in global health

2014 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 552-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Steeb ◽  
Pamela U. Joyner ◽  
Dhiren R. Thakker
Keyword(s):  
Global Health
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