scholarly journals Towards Preventing and Managing Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy? An Analysis of Submissions to a Consultation on a Draft WHO Tool

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Ralston ◽  
Sarah E. Hil ◽  
Fabio da Silva Gomes ◽  
Jeff Collin
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Nutrition Policy ◽  
Commercial Sector ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Member States ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
Policy Engagement

Background: With multi-stakeholder approaches central to efforts to address global health challenges, debates around conflict of interest (COI) are increasingly prominent. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently developed a proposed tool to support member states in preventing and managing COI in nutrition policy. We analysed responses to an online consultation to explore how actors from across sectors understand COI and the ways in which they use this concept to frame the terms of commercial sector engagement in health governance. Methods: Submissions from 44 Member States, international organisations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic institutions and commercial sector actors were coded using a thematic framework informed by framing theory. Respondents’ orientation to the tool aligned with two broad frames, ie, a ‘collaboration and partnership’ frame that endorsed multi-stakeholder approaches and a ‘restricted engagement’ frame that highlighted core tensions between public health and food industry actors. Results: Responses to the WHO tool reflected contrasting conceptualisations of COI and implications for health governance. While most Member States, NGOs, and academic institutions strongly supported the tool, commercial sector organisations depicted it as inappropriate, unworkable and incompatible with the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). Commercial sector respondents advanced a narrow, individual-level understanding of COI, seen as adequately addressed by existing mechanisms for disclosure, and viewed the WHO tool as unduly restricting scope for private sector engagement in nutrition policy. In contrast, health-focused NGOs and several Member States drew on a more expansive understanding of COI that recognised scope for wider tensions between public health goals and commercial interests and associated governance challenges. These submissions mostly welcomed the tool as an innovative approach to preventing and managing such conflicts, although some NGOs sought broader exclusion of corporate actors from policy engagement. Conclusion: Submissions on the WHO tool illustrate how contrasting positions on COI are central to understanding broader debates in nutrition policy and across global health governance. Effective health governance requires greater understanding of how COI can be conceptualised and managed amid high levels of contestation on policy engagement with commercial sector actors. This requires both ongoing innovation in governance tools and more extensive conceptual and empirical research.

scholarly journals "Conflicted" Conceptions of Conflict of Interest: How the Commercial Sector Responses to the WHO Tool on Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy Are Part of Their Standard Playbook to Undermine Public Health Comment on "Towards Preventing and Managing Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy? An Analysis of Submissions to a Consultation on a Draft WHO Tool"

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Rob Moodie
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Nutrition Policy ◽  
World Health ◽  
Commercial Sector ◽  
Member States ◽  
The World ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
Stakeholder Partnerships ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Multi Stakeholder

Managing conflict of interest (CoI) among the interested stake-holders in nutrition policy is a vexed and controversial issue. This commentary builds on Ralston and colleagues’ highly informative analysis of the 44 submissions to the World Health Organization (WHO) draft tool on preventing and managing CoI in national nutrition programs. The commentary proposes that the commercial sector actors are, by definition, too conflicted to objectively respond to the draft tool. The responses of the commercial sectors are predictable, as they mimic their positions during the prior negotiation for the development of the Framework for Engagement of Non-State Actors (FENSA). Their overall approach, and specific responses, are typical of the now standard methods of the ultra-processed food and beverage industry’s ‘corporate playbook.’ In addition, Ralston et al’s analysis raises a number of other issues, such as: why these corporations are so keen to be included in the world of multi-stakeholder partnerships, why so few member states responded to the draft tool, and problems with the term ‘private sector.’ The commentary ends with a suggestion for WHO to seek broader involvement from the 160+ member states who have yet to participate in the consultations regarding the draft tool.

Should Public Health and Policy Communities Interact With the Food Industry? It Depends on Context Comment on "Towards Preventing and Managing Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy? An Analysis of Submissions to a Consultation on a Draft WHO Tool"

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Cullerton ◽  
Jean Adams ◽  
Martin White
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Nutrition Policy ◽  
World Health ◽  
Business Goals ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Intractable Problem ◽  
Policy Communities

The issue of public health and policy communities engaging with food sector companies has long caused tension and debate. Ralston and colleagues’ article ‘Towards Preventing and Managing Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy? An Analysis of Submissions to a Consultation on a Draft WHO Tool’ further examines this issue. They found widespread food industry opposition, not just to the details of the World Health Organization (WHO) tool, but to the very idea of it. In this commentary we reflect on this finding and the arguments for and against interacting with the food industry during different stages of the policy process. While involving the food industry in certain aspects of the policy process without favouring their business goals may seem like an intractable problem, we believe there are opportunities for progress that do not compromise our values as public health professionals. We suggest three key steps to making progress.

Human Rights in Global Health

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
World Health ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Structural Determinants ◽  
Organizational Policies ◽  
Governmental Organizations

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. Bringing together leading health and human rights scholars and practitioners from academia, non-governmental organizations, and the United Nations system, this volume explores: (1) the foundations of human rights as a normative framework for global health governance, (2) the mandate of the World Health Organization to pursue a human rights-based approach to health, (3) the role of inter-governmental organizations across a range of health-related human rights, (4) the influence of rights-based economic governance on public health, and (5) the focus on global health among institutions of human rights governance. Contributing chapters map the distinct human rights activities within a specific institution of global governance for health. Through the comparative institutional analysis in this volume, the contributing authors examine institutional efforts 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.

Powerful Allies and Weak Consensus: Towards a Deeper Understanding of how Health-Harming Industries Seek to Influence Global Health Governance; Comment on "Competing Frames in Global Health Governance: An Analysis of Stakeholder Influence on the Political Declaration on Non-Communicable Diseases"

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Zenone ◽  
Benjamin Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Commercial Sector ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Non Communicable Diseases ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The One

Suzuki et al. have identified commonalities in the policy positions adopted at a global forum by commercial sector actors and high-income countries, on the one hand, and non-governmental organizations and low- and middle-income countries, on the other, in ways that may allow commercial sector actors to block or delay evidence-based policies through the creation of political controversy. The ability of industry actors to draw on the support of the most politically and economically powerful countries for their favoured policy agenda is an important contribution to understanding the dynamics of global health governance in the area of non-communicable diseases and beyond. Here we assess the relevance of this paper for the field of corporate actors’ research and the potential avenues this opens up for further study. More specifically we emphasize the need for comparative, cross disciplinary research to examine the power of heath-harming industries and the relevance of these findings for decolonizing global health.

scholarly journals Beware the Kindleberger Trap in Global Health Governance

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Jin Jiyong
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Public Goods ◽  
Stress Test ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Global Public Goods ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Health Crisis

The Covid-19 pandemic is both a public health crisis and a stress test for global health governance. Effective health governance hinges on the provision of global public goods for health. Generally, the hegemon underwrites the operation and stability of the global public health architecture by ensuring the sustained supply of global public goods for health. But when the hegemon is unable or unwilling to shoulder this responsibility, global health governance may run the risk of falling into a Kindleberger Trap. The leadership vacuum that is opening up amid the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating the process. At present, China should adopt a three-pronged approach to promote bilateral health cooperation with leading countries like the United States, strengthen regional institution-building with ASEAN, South Korea, Japan, and Belt and Road countries, and improve the performance, credibility, and integrity of global organizations like the WHO and G-20. The Kindleberger Trap in global health governance can be overcome by adapting regional health coordination to make it more agile and effective.

scholarly journals Cooperação e contrapartida nas ações da OMS: notas sobre a geopolítica da saúde global/Cooperation and counterparts in WHO actions: notes on global health geopolytics

2018 ◽  
pp. 158-172
Author(s):  
Camilo Darsie ◽  
Douglas Weber ◽  
Mateus Aparecido De Faria ◽  
Cristianne Maria Famer Rocha
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Global Health ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Who Guidelines ◽  
Member States ◽  
Development Agencies ◽  
State Actors

Este ensaio visa, a partir de documentos oficiais e literatura especializada, analisar o desempenho da OMS desde sua origem e seu papel em questões relacionadas à saúde global, destacando a dinâmica da cooperação-contrapartida. Essa dinâmica é resultado da complexificação das relações internacionais, envolvendo Estados membros, atores não estatais e agências de desenvolvimento, a fim de não apenas seguir as diretrizes da OMS, mas também incentiválos a priorizar certos projetos globais de saúde.Palavras-chave: Saúde Global, Cooperação Internacional, Saúde Pública, OMS. ABSTRACTThis essay aims, from official documents and specialized literature, to analyze the performance of WHO since its origin and its role in matters related to global health, highlighting the dynamics of cooperation-counterpart. This dynamic is a result of the complexification of international relations, involving member States, non-state actors and development agencies, in order not only to follow WHO guidelines but also to encourage them to prioritize certain global health projects.Keywords: Global Health, International Cooperation, Public Health, WHO.

scholarly journals Tackling NCDs: The Need to Address Alcohol Industry Interference and Policy Incoherence Across Sectors Comment on "Towards Preventing and Managing Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy? An Analysis of Submissions to a Consultation on a Draft WHO Tool"

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Townsend ◽  
Mia Miller ◽  
Deborah Gleeson
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Conflict Of Interest ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Nutrition Policy ◽  
Alcohol Policy ◽  
World Health ◽  
Alcohol Industry ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Market Liberalisation ◽  
Health Organization

Ralston et al highlight the ways that different actors in global nutrition governance conceptualise and frame the role of non-state actors in governance arrangements, including the potential for conflict of interest (COI) to undermine global health efforts. The authors argue that the World Health Organization (WHO) draft tool on managing COI in nutrition policy is an important innovation in global health, but that further research and refinement is needed for operationalising the management of COI with diverse actors in diverse contexts. In this commentary, reflecting on strategic framing and industry interference in policy-making, we argue for the urgent need for states and intergovernmental organisations to prevent alcohol industry interference in the development of national and global alcohol policy. We argue that policy incoherence remains a key barrier, where governments pursue health goals in the health sector while pursuing exports and market liberalisation of health harmful commodities in the trade sector.

scholarly journals Strengthening Human Rights in Global Health Law: Lessons from the COVID-19 Response

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 328-331
Author(s):  
Judith Bueno de Mesquita ◽  
Anuj Kapilashrami ◽  
Benjamin Mason Meier
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
International Human

AbstractWhile human rights law has evolved to provide guidance to governments in realizing human rights in public health emergencies, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the foundations of human rights in global health governance. Public health responses to the pandemic have undermined international human rights obligations to realize (1) the rights to health and life, (2) human rights that underlie public health, and (3) international assistance and cooperation. As governments prepare for revisions of global health law, new opportunities are presented to harmonize global health law and human rights law, strengthening rights-based governance to respond to future threats.

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