the formulation of global health policy is political; and all institutions operating in the global health landscape are political. this is because policies and institutions inevitably represent certain values, reflect particular ideologies, and preferentially serve some interests over others. this may be expressed explicitly and consciously; or implicitly and unconsciously. but it’s important t...

the global health agenda has been dominating the current global health policy debate. furthermore, it has compelled countries to embrace strategies for tackling health inequalities in a wide range of public health areas. the article by robert and colleagues highlights that although globalization has increased opportunities to share and spread ideas, there is still great asymmetry of power accor...

gorik ooms recently made a strong case for considering the centrality of normative premises to analyzing and understanding the underappreciated importance of the nexus of politics, power and process in global health. this critical commentary raises serious questions for the practice and study of global health and global health governance. first and foremost, this commentary underlines the impor...

[no abstract available]

Shiffman recently summarized lessons for network effectiveness from an impressive collection of case-studies. However, in common with most global health governance analysis in recent years, Shiffman underplays the important role of states in these global networks. As the body which decides and signs international agreements, often provides the resourcing, and is responsible for implementing ini...

members of the 67th world health assembly in 2014 were presented with a framework document to guide world health organization (who) engagement with non-state actors, a key part of who reform kick-started in 2011. according to this document, non-state actors include four distinct constituencies: i) nongovernmental organizations (ngos), ii) private sector entities; iii) philanthropic foundations;...

brugha and bruen (2014) raise a number of compelling issues related to the interaction between politics and policy in the global health context. the first question that their views invite is whether this is, at heart, best characterized as a benign or malign influence. many commentators have suggested that this overlap should be discouraged (see, for example, marseille et al 2002; thomas & webe...

shiffman has argued that some actors have a great deal of power in global health, and that more reflection is needed on whether such forms of power are legitimate. global health is a new and evolving field that builds upon the historical fields of public and international health, but is more multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary in nature. this article argues that the distribution of power ...

in his perspective “navigating between stealth advocacy and unconscious dogmatism: the challenge of researching the norms, politics and power of global health,” ooms argues that actions taken in the field of global health are dependent not only on available resources, but on the normative premise that guides how these resources are spent. this comment sets out how the application of a predomina...