Global Health Governance: A Conceptual Review

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DISCUSSION PAPER No.1
Global Health Governance
A CONCEPTUAL REVIEW
Richard Dodgson
Kelley Lee
Nick Drager
February 2002
Centre on Global Change & Health Dept of Health & Development
London School of Hygiene World Health Organization
& Tropical Medicine

1
Acknowledgements
This paper was written as part of a project entitled “Key Issues in Global
Health Governance” funded by the Department of Health and Development,
World Health Organization. The authors wish to thank Robert Beaglehole,
Kent Buse, Jeff Collin and David Fidler for their helpful comments on previous
drafts of this paper.

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Preface
WHO's work in the area of Globalization and Health focuses on assisting
countries to assess and act on cross border risks to public health security.
Recognising that domestic action alone is not sufficient to ensure health
locally the work programme also supports necessary collective action to
address cross border risks and improve health outcomes.
In carrying out this work there was an increasing recognition that the existing
rules, institutional mechanisms and forms of organization need to evolve to
better respond to the emerging challenges of globalization and ensure that
globalization benefits those currently left behind in the development process.
Consequently, as part of WHO's research programme on Globalization and
Health, global governance for health was identified as an issue that required
more detailed analysis to better inform policy makers interested in shaping the
future "architecture" for global health.
Working in partnership with the Centre on Global Change and Health at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, WHO's Department of Health
and Development commissioned a series of discussion papers as a starting
point to explore the different dimensions of global governance for health. The
papers have been written from varying disciplinary perspectives including
international relations, international law, history and public health. We hope
these papers will stimulate interest in the central importance of global health
governance, and encourage reflection and debate among all those concerned
with building a more inclusive and "healthier" form of globalization.
Dr. Nick Drager
Department of Health and Development
World Health Organization

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Authors
Dr. Richard Dodgson
Research Fellow (until 2000)
Centre on Global Change and Health
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Dr. Kelley Lee
Senior Lecturer and Co-director
Centre on Global Change and Health
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Dr. Nick Drager
Coordinator
Globalization, Trade and Cross Sectoral Issues
Department of Health and Environment
World Health Organization
For more information please contact:
Melanie Batty, Secretary
Centre on Global Change and Health
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT UK
Tel: +44(0)20 7927 2944
Fax: +44(0)20 7927 2946
Email: melanie.batty@lshtm.ac.uk

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ABBREVIATIONS
EBF extrabudgetary funds
FCTC Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
GHG global health governance
GPPPs global public-private partnerships
HSD Department of Health and Sustainable Development (WHO)
ICPD International Conference on Population and Development
IFPMA International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
Associations
IGO intergovernmental organization
IHG international health governance
IHR International Health Regulations
IMF International Monetary Fund
IR International Relations
MSF Medicins Sans Frontieres
NGO nongovernmental organization
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
OIHP Organization International d'Hygiène Publique
PAHO Pan American Health Organization
PASB Pan American Sanitary Bureau
SAP structural adjustment programme
SPS Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures
TBT technical barriers to trade
TFI Tobacco Free Initiative
TNC transnational corporation
TRIPS agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights
UNDDSMS United Nations Department for Development Support and
Management Services
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNFPA United Nations Population Fund
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund/UN
Children's Fund
UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
WHA World Health Assembly
WHO World Health Organization
WTO World Trade Organization

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GLOBAL HEALTH GOVERNANCE, A CONCEPTUAL REVIEW
The solution lies not in turning one’s back on globalization, but in
learning how to manage it. In other words, there is a crying need
for better global governance…
UN Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette (1998)
…global governance cannot replace the need for good governance
in national societies; in fact, in the absence of quality local
governance, global and regional arrangements are bound to fail or
will have only limited effectiveness. In a way, governance has to
be built from the ground up and then linked back to the local
conditions.
R. Vayrynen, Globalization and Global Governance (1999)
1.1 INTRODUCTION
In today’s world of changing health risks and opportunities, the capacity to
influence health determinants, status and outcomes cannot be assured
through national actions alone because of the intensification of crossborder
and transborder flows of people, goods and services, and ideas. The need for
more effective collective action by governments, business and civil society to
better manage these risks and opportunities is leading us to reassess the rules
and institutions that govern health policy and practice at the subnational,
national, regional and global levels. This is particularly so as a range of health
determinants are increasingly affected by factors outside of the health sector –
trade and investment flows, collective violence and conflict, illicit and criminal
activity, environmental change and communication technologies. There is an
acute need to broaden the public health agenda to take account of these
globalizing forces, and to ensure that the protection and promotion of human
health is placed higher on other policy agendas (McMichael and Beaglehole
2000). There is a widespread belief that the current system of international
health governance (IHG) does not sufficiently meet these needs and, indeed,
has a number of limitations and gaps. In light of these perceived
shortcomings, the concept of global health governance (GHG) has become a
subject of interest and debate in the field of international health.
This paper seeks to contribute to this emerging discussion by reviewing the
conceptual meaning and defining features of GHG.
1
This paper begins with a
brief discussion of why GHG has become such a subject of discussion and
debate. The particular impacts that globalization may be having on
individuals and societies, and the fundamental challenges that this poses for
promoting and protecting health, are explained. This is followed by a review of
the history of IHG and, in particular, the traditional role of the World Health
Organization (WHO). The purpose of this brief section is to draw out the
distinction between international and global health governance, and the
degree to which there is presently, and should be, a shift to the latter.
2
This is
achieved by defining, in turn, the terms global health and governance from
which the essential elements of GHG can be identified. This leads to an
1
A more detailed analysis of the institutional forms and mechanisms of international and global health
governance is provided in Fidler D. (2002), “Global Health Governance: Overview of the role of
international law in protecting and promoting global public health,” Discussion Paper No.3.
2
A more detailed analysis of the historical dimensions of global health governance is provided in
Loughlin K. and Berridge V. (2002), Historical Dimensions of Global Health Governance, Discussion
Paper No.2.

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identification of key challenges faced by the health community in bringing
about such a system in future. The paper concludes with suggestions on how
the key types of actors and their respective roles in GHG might be defined
further.
1.2 HEALTH GOVERNANCE: THE CHALLENGE OF GLOBALIZATION
In broad terms, governance can be defined as the actions and means adopted
by a society to promote collective action and deliver collective solutions in
pursuit of common goals. This a broad term that is encompassing of the
many ways in which human beings, as individuals and groups, organize
themselves to achieve agreed goals. Such organization requires agreement on
a range of matters including membership within the co-operative relationship,
obligations and responsibilities of members, the making of decisions, means of
communication, resource mobilisation and distribution, dispute settlement,
and formal or informal rules and procedures concerning all of these. Defined
in this way, governance pertains to highly varied sorts of collective behaviour
ranging from local community groups to transnational corporations, from
labour unions to the UN Security Council. Governance thus relates to both
the public and private sphere of human activity, and sometimes a combination
of the two.
Importantly, governance is distinct from government. As Rosenau (1990)
writes,
Governance is not synonymous with government. Both refer to
purposive behaviour, to goal oriented activities, to systems of rule;
but government suggests activities that are backed by formal
authority…whereas governance refers to activities backed by
shared goals that may or may not derive from legal and formally
prescribed responsibilities and that do not necessarily rely on
police powers to overcome defiance and attain compliance.
Government, in other words, is a particular and highly formalised form of
governance. Where governance is institutionalised within an agreed set of
rules and procedures, regular or irregular meeting of relevant parties, or a
permanent organizational structure with appropriate decision making and
implementing bodies, we can describe these as the means or mechanisms of
governance (Finkelstein 1995), of which government is one form. In other
cases, however, governance may rely on informal mechanisms (e.g. custom,
common law, cultural norms and values) that are not formalised into explicit
rules.
Health governance concerns the actions and means adopted by a society to
organize itself in the promotion and protection of the health of its population.
The rules defining such organization, and its functioning, can again be formal
(e.g. Public Health Act, International Health Regulations) or informal (e.g.
Hippocratic oath) to prescribe and proscribe behaviour. The governance
mechanism, in turn, can be situated at the local/subnational (e.g. district
health authority), national (e.g. Ministry of Health), regional (e.g. Pan American
Health Organization), international (e.g. World Health Organization) and, as
argued in Section 1.5, the global level. Furthermore, health governance can be
public (e.g. national health service), private (e.g. International Federation of
Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association), or a combination of the two (e.g.
Malaria for Medicines Venture).

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Historically, the locus of health governance has been at the national and
subnational level as governments of individual countries have assumed
primary responsibility for the health of their domestic populations. Their
authority and responsibility, in turn, has been delegated/distributed to
regional/district/local levels. Where the determinants of health have spilled
over national borders to become international (transborder) health issues (e.g.
infectious diseases) two or more governments have sought to cooperate
together on agreed collective actions. This is discussed in Section 1.3.
Growing discussions of the need to strengthen health governance at national,
regional, international and, more recently, the global level has, in part, been
driven by a concern that a range of globalizing forces (e.g. technological
change, increased capital flows, intensifying population mobility) are creating
impacts on health that existing forms of governance cannot effectively address.
This has led to debates about, for example, the appropriate balance among
different levels of governance, what roles public and private actors should
play, and what institutional rules and structures are needed to protect and
promote human health.
This paper sees globalization as an historical process characterised by
changes in the nature of human interaction across a range of social spheres
including the economic, political, technological, cultural and environmental.
These changes are globalizing in the sense that boundaries hitherto separating
us from each other are being transformed. These boundaries – spatial,
temporal and cognitive - can be described as the dimensions of globalization.
Briefly, the spatial dimension concerns changes to how we perceive and
experience physical space or geographical territory. The temporal dimension
concerns changes to how we perceive and experience time. The cognitive
dimension concerns changes to how we think about ourselves and the world
around us (Lee 2000b).
Many argue that globalization is reducing the capacity of states to provide for
the health of their domestic populations and, by extension, intergovernmental
health cooperation is also limited. The impact of globalization upon the
capacity of states and other actors to co-operate internationally to protect
human health is fourfold. First, globalization has introduced or intensified
transborder health risks defined as risks to human health that transcend
national borders in their origin or impact (Lee 2000a). Such risks may include
emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, various noncommunicable
diseases (e.g. lung cancer, obesity, hypertension) and environmental
degradation (e.g. global climate change). The growth in the geographical scope
and speed in which transborder health risks present themselves directly
challenge the existing system of IHG that is defined by national borders. The
mechanisms of IHG, in other words, may be constrained by its statecentric
nature to tackle global health effectively (Zacher 1999b).
Second, as described above, globalization is characterised by a growth in the
number, and degree of influence, of nonstate actors in health governance.
Many argue that the relative authority and capacity of national governments to
protect and promote the health of domestic populations has declined in the
face of globalizing forces beyond national borders that affect the basic
determinants of health as well as erode national resources for addressing their
consequences (Deacon et al. 1997). Nonstate actors, including civil society
groups, global social movements, private companies, consultancy firms, think
tanks, religious movements and organized crime, in turn, have gained
relatively greater power and influence both formally and informally.
3
The
3
The emerging and potential role of civil society and private sector in global health governance are
discussed in Discussion Paper Nos. 4 and 5.

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emerging picture is becoming more complex, with the distinct roles of state
and nonstate actors in governance activities such as agenda setting, resource
mobilisation and allocation, and dispute settlement becoming less clear. New
combinations of both state and nonstate actors are rapidly forming, in a
myriad of forms such as partnerships, alliances, coalitions, networks and joint
ventures. This apparent “hybridisation” of governance mechanisms around
certain health issues is a reflection of the search for more effective ways of
cooperation to promote health in the face of new institutions. At the same
time, however, it throws up new challenges for creating appropriate and
recognised institutional mechanisms for, inter alia, ensuring appropriate
representation, participation, accountability and transparency.
Third, current forms of globalization appear to be problematic for sustaining,
and even worsening existing socioeconomic, political and environmental
problems. UNDP (1999), for example, reports that neoliberal forms of
globalization have been accompanied by widening inequalities between rich
and poor within and across countries. In a special issue of Development
4
,
authors cite experiences of worsening poverty, marginalisation and health
inequity as a consequence of globalization. In some respects, these problems
can be seen as “externalities” or “global public bads” (Kaul et al. 1999) that are
arising as a result of globalizing processes that are insufficiently managed by
effective health governance. As Fidler (1998a) writes, these deeply rooted
problems “feed off” the negative consequences of the globalization of health,
creating a reciprocal relationship between health and the determinants of
health. Although many of these problems are most acute in the developing
world, they are of concern to all countries given their transborder nature (i.e.
unconfined to national borders).
Fourth, globalization has contributed to a decline in both the political and
practical capacity (see reading) of the national governments, acting alone or in
cooperation with other states, to deal with global health challenges. While
globalization is a set of changes occurring gradually over several centuries, its
acceleration and intensification from the late twentieth century has brought
attention to the fact that states alone cannot address many of the health
challenges arising. Infectious diseases are perhaps the most prominent
example of this diminishing capacity, but equally significant are the impacts
on noncommunicable diseases (e.g. tobacco-related cancers), food and
nutrition, lifestyles and environmental conditions (Lee 2000b). This
decapitating of the state has been reinforced by initiatives to further liberalise
the global trade of goods and services. The possible health consequences of
more open global markets have only begun to be discussed within trade
negotiations and remain unaddressed by proposed governance mechanisms
for the emerging global economy.
The fourth of the above points is perhaps the most significant because it raises
the possibility of the need for a change in the fundamental nature of health
governance. As mentioned above, IHG is structured on the belief that
governments have primary responsibility for the health of its people and able,
in co-operation with other states, to protect its population from health risks.
Globalization, however, means that the state may be increasingly undermined
in its capacity to fulfil this role alone, that IHG is necessary but insufficient,
and that additional or new forms of health governance may be needed. Some
scholars and practitioners believe that this new system of health governance
needs to be global in scope, so that it can deal effectively with problems
caused by the globalization of health (Farmer 1998; Kickbusch 1999).
4
Development, Special Issue on Responses to Globalization: Rethinking health and equity, December
1999, 42(4).

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Globalization, in short, is an important driving force behind the emergence of
GHG.
1.3 THE ORIGINS OF INTERNATIONAL HEALTH GOVERNANCE
1.3.1 The growth of health governance in the nineteenth century
A fuller understanding of the distinction between international and global
health governance requires an historical perspective, of which a brief overview
is provided here.
5
Historically, we can trace health governance to the most
ancient human societies where agreed rules and practices about hygiene and
disease were adopted. Early forms of IHG, in the form of cooperation on
health matters between two or more countries, span many centuries with the
adoption of quarantine practices amidst flourishing trade relations and the
creation of regional health organizations. The process of building institutional
structures, rules and mechanisms to systematically protect and promote
human health across national borders, however, began more concertedly
during the nineteenth century. Following the conclusion of the Napoleonic
Wars, European states formed a number of international institutions to
promote peace, industrial development and address collective concerns
including the spread of infectious disease. This process of institutionalisation
of IHG, according to Fidler (1997), was a consequence of the intensified
globalization of health during this period.
6
Notably, these initiatives enjoyed
the support of political and economic elites across European societies who
believed that the crossborder spread of disease would hamper industrialisation
and the expansion of international trade (Murphy 1995; Fidler 1998a).
The first institution to be created during this period was the International
Sanitary Conference, with the first conference held in 1851. The achievements
of this meeting, and the ten conferences subsequently held over the next four
decades, were limited. In total, four conventions on quarantine and hygiene
practices were concluded, along with an agreement to establish an institution
for maintaining and reporting epidemiological data, and coordinating
responses to outbreaks of infectious diseases (Lee 1998). Importantly,
however, the conferences formalised a basic principle that has defined
subsequent efforts to build IHG, namely the recognition that acting in
cooperation through agreed rules and procedures enable governments to
better protect their domestic populations from health risks that cross national
borders. As such, the institutions adopted were envisioned as an extension of
participating governments' responsibilities in the health field to the
international (intergovernmental) level.
Along with this emerging sense of an international health community,
constructed of cooperating states, was a growing body of scientific knowledge
that was beginning to be shared in a more organized fashion (1998a).
Scientific meetings on health-related themes reflected substantial advances
during this period in understanding the causes of a number of diseases, such
as cholera and tuberculosis. In addition, international meetings were held on
social issues that impacted on public health, notably trafficking of liquor and
2
A more detailed analysis of the historical dimensions of global health governance is provided in
Loughlin K. and Berridge V. (2002), Historical Dimensions of Global Health Governance, Discussion
Paper No.2.
6
Early regional health organizations include the Conseil Superieur de Sante de Constantinople (c. 1830),
European Commission for the Danube (1856) and International Sanitary Bureau of the Americas (1902).
For a history of health cooperation in the nineteenth century see Howard-Jones N. (1975), The Scientific
Background of the International Sanitary Conferences, 1851-1938 (Geneva: WHO History of
International Public Health Series); and Weindling P. ed. (1995), International Health Organizations and
Movements, 1918-1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

10
opium. Between 1851-1913, eighteen international conferences on health
were held (Box 1.1), and twelve health-related international institutions
7
had
been established by 1914 (Murphy 1995). Among the most prominent were
the International Sanitary Bureau (later the Pan American Sanitary Bureau) in
1902 and Office International d’Hygiene Publique (OIHP) created in Paris in
1907. The OIHP was a milestone in IHG in that it provided a standing (rather
than periodic) forum for countries to exchange ideas and information on
public health (Roemer 1994). This was followed in 1920 with the formation of
the Health Organization of the League of Nations. While a lack of resources
and political support restricted its activities, and inter-organizational
competition with the OIHP hindered the scope of its work, the organization
emerged from the interwar period with a strong reputation for data collection
and public health research.
BOX 1.1: WORLD AND EUROPEAN CONFERENCES ON HEALTH: 1851-1913
1851 First Sanitary Conference, Paris
1859 Second Sanitary Conference, Paris
1866 Third Sanitary Conference, Instanbul
1874 Fourth, Sanitary Conference, Vienna
1881 Fifth Sanitary Conference, Washington
1885 Sixth Sanitary Conference, Rome
1887 Liquor on the North Sea, venue unrecorded
1892 Seventh Sanitary Conference, Venice
1893 Eight Sanitary Conference, Dresden
1894 Ninth Sanitary Conference, Paris
1897 Tenth Sanitary Conference, Venice
1899 Liquor Traffic in Africa, Brussels
1903 Eleventh Sanitary Conference, Paris
1906 Liquor Traffic in Africa, Brussels
1909 Opium, Shanghai
1911 Twelfth Sanitary Conference, Paris
1911 Opium, The Hague
1913 Opium, The Hague
Source: Murphy, C.N. (1994), International Organization and Industrial Change: Global
Governance since 1850 (Cambridge: Polity Press), p.59.
From the mid nineteenth century, the nongovernmental sector also began to
grow and contribute to IHG, essentially filling gaps or supplementing
government action. For example, religious missions and The Rockefeller
Foundation's International Health Division (established in 1913) led the way in
supporting health services and disease control programmes in many parts of
the developing world. The International Committee of the Red Cross
(established in 1863) succeeded in establishing the Geneva Convention, a
precursor of future international health regimes in setting out norms of
behaviour and ethical standards for treating casualties of war. Other notable
NGOs created during this period were the League of Red Cross Societies (1919)
and Save the Children Fund (1919).
By the 1920s, governmental and nongovernmental health organizations were
contributing to a vision of IHG that was increasingly defined by
humanitarianism. Many medical practitioners and public health officials
building national public health systems at the national level (e.g. Margaret
Sanger) became closely involved in designing these early international health
institutions. Many of attended international scientific conferences from the
mid nineteenth century, bringing with them a strong belief that international
7
The twelve health-related international institutions established compares with five on human rights,
three on humanitarian relief and welfare, and ten on education and research (Murphy 1995).

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health cooperation should seek to provide health to as many people as
possible. To achieve this vision of ‘social medicine’ required a strong emphasis
on universality as a guiding principal, achieved through the inclusion of as
many countries as possible in any international system of health governance
that was formed.
1.3.2 International Health Governance after the Second World War
The postwar period brought a significant expansion in IHG through the
establishment of new institutions and official development assistance for
health purposes. Within the UN system, the World Health Organization (WHO)
was created in 1948 as the UN specialised agency for health. Other
organizations contributing to health were the UN Relief and Rehabilitation
Administration (UNRRA) in 1943, UN International Children’s Emergency
Fund (UNICEF) in 1946 and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in
1949. WHO was similar in a number of ways to the Health Organization of the
League of Nations that preceded it. Above all, the ideal of universality was,
and remains, central to its mandate and activities. As stated by the
Constitution of WHO (1946), the overall goal of the organization is “the
attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health”. Even in the
face of scepticism at the attainability of such a mandate, and challenges to the
appropriateness of social medicine (Goodman 1971), WHO was founded with a
strong commitment to addressing the health needs of all people. The
universalism of WHO has been reaffirmed on a number of occasions since
1948, most clearly during the 1970s with the Health for All strategy and
Renewing Health for All Strategy in the 1990s (Antezana et al. 1998).
WHO’s pledge to universality, however, has been strongly defined by the
sovereignty of its member states. The working assumption of the organization
has been that "health for all" can be achieved by working primarily, if not
exclusively, through governmental institutions, notably ministries of health.
Universality, in this sense, is measured by number of member states. Where a
large number of countries participate, such as the World Health Assembly
(WHA), it is assumed that the health needs of all peoples are represented. The
role of WHO, in turn, is designed as supporting the efforts of governments to
promote and protect the health of their populations.
Beyond national governments NGOs have been allowed to apply for permission
to enter into official relations with WHO since 1950 if it is concerned with
matters that fall within the competence of the organization and pursues
(whose aims and purposes are in conformity with those of the Constitution of
WHO). In 1998, there were 188 NGOs in official relations (WHO 1998) from
such diverse fields as medicine, science, education, law, humanitarian aid and
industry. In principle, therefore, NGOs are recognised as important
contributors to achieving the goals of WHO. In practice, however, the actual
role NGOs have played has been limited. Lucas et al. (1997), for example,
found that WHO has engaged with NGOs in its support at country level in
contrast with trends within agencies and other UN organizations such as
UNDP and UNICEF. At the headquarters and regional levels, officially
recognised NGOs have observed proceedings of the World Health Assembly or
meetings of the regional committees, and have limited access to programme-
related meetings dealing with more specific health issues. However NGOs
have not been routinely consulted despite their importance as channels of
health sector aid since the 1980s (Hulme and Edwards 1997) increased.
This traditional focus on member states and, in particular, ministries of health
has been in a context of greater diversity of policy actors. By the mid 1990s,

12
the map of IHG was one of considerable uncertainty, as Zacher (1999bc)
describes, fractured into an “organizational patchwork quilt”. Alongside WHO
has emerged a multiplicity of players, each accountable to a different
constituency and bringing with them different guiding principles, expertise,
resources and governance structures. The World Bank maintains a prominent
place because of its unrivalled financial resources and policy influence.
Regional organizations, such as the European Union, and other UN
organizations (e.g. UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA) retain health as an important
component of their work but are more limited in membership and/or scope.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and
World Trade Organization (WTO) approach health from an economic and trade
perspective. Varied civil society groups, such as consumer groups, social
movements and research institutions, also make substantial contributions to
health development. Finally, the growth of the private sector actors in health,
within and across countries, is notable. New fault lines and allegiances had
emerged to form an increasingly complex milieu for health cooperation, with
interests divided within and across countries and organizations. Undertaking
a wide-ranging process of reform, WHO has sought to change some of its
traditional governance features, notably its strong focus on ministries of
health, by engaging other public and private sector actors, and creating new
consultation mechanisms. As discussed in 1.4 below, there have been clear
efforts to increase the involvement of the NGO sector in areas of WHO
activities, such as tobacco, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, since the late 1990s.
At the same time, it has reiterated its commitment to universality as the
defining principle of its activities. How to define, let alone achieve health for
all, remains an enduring challenge.
In summary, IHG has evolved alongside an intensification of human
interaction across national borders over a number of centuries, gradually
becoming more institutionalised from the mid nineteenth century. During the
twentieth century, this institutional framework has grown and spread,
encompassing both rich and poor countries, in all regions of the world. The
defining feature of IHG has been the primacy given to the state although non-
state actors and interests were ever present. By the late twentieth century,
however, what Held et al. (1999) calls a "thickening" of the globalization
process was challenging this statecentric system of health governance. It is
within this context that discussions and debates about global health
governance have emerged.
1.4 AN EMERGING SYSTEM OF GLOBAL HEALTH GOVERNANCE?
The precise origins of the term GHG are unclear, although many scholars and
practitioners who use the term draw upon a number of different fields. These
mixed origins mean that GHG can be difficult to define. This problem of
definition is compounded by the fact that the term GHG is used widely in a
number of different contexts. We can begin to overcome this problem of
definition by breaking GHG into its component parts – global health and
governance.
1.4.1 International versus global health
Globalization brings into question how we define the determinants of health
and how they can be addressed. In principle, the mandate of WHO is based
on a broad understanding of health
8
, although in practice its activities have
8
The Constitution of WHO defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well being
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

13
traditionally been biomedical in focus. Since the 1970s, efforts have been
made to incorporate a more multisectoral and multidisciplinary approach into
the organization's activities. For example, Health for all in the 21
st
Century
links the attainment of good health to human rights, equity, gender,
sustainable development, education, agriculture, trade, energy, water and
sanitation (Antezana et al. 1998). Similarly, the replacement of the Global
Programme on AIDS by UNAIDS was in large part due to a desire to go beyond
a narrow biomedical approaches to HIV/AIDS (Altman 1999).
Globalization from the late twentieth century has emphasised even more
poignantly the need for greater attention to the basic determinants of health
including so-called non-health issue areas. In arguing for a reinvigoration of
public health, McMichael and Beaglehole (1999) point to the need to address
underlying socioeconomic (notably inequalities), demographic and
environmental changes that global change is creating. Similarly, Chen et al.
(1999) argue that globalization is eroding the boundary between the
determinants of public (collective) and private (individual) health. For
example, susceptibility to tobacco-related diseases, once strongly linked to,
and blamed on, the lifestyle choices of individuals, is increasingly seen as
attributable to the worldwide marketing practices of tobacco companies. The
distinction between global health and international health therefore is that the
former entails a broadening of our understanding of, and policy responses to,
the basic determinants of health to include forces that transcend the territorial
boundaries of states. Global health requires a rethinking of how we prioritise
and address the basic determinants of health, and engagement with the broad
range of sectors that shape those underlying determinants.
The need to address the basic determinants of health leads to the practical
question of how to do so. Since at least the early 1990s, there has been a
growing confusion of mandates among UN organizations that have substantial
involvement in the health sector - WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and the
World Bank. In large part, this has been due to efforts to develop
multisectoral approaches to both health and development, as well as key areas
(e.g. reproductive health, environmental health) that bring together the
activities of two or more organizations (Lee et al. 1996). Globalization invites a
further widening of the net of relevant organizations, requiring engagement
with actors that have little or no formal mandate in the health field. Notable
have been efforts to establish greater dialogue between WHO and the WTO.
While trade interests have historically defined, and in many ways confined,
international health cooperation, officially the two spheres have been
addressed by separate institutions. Nonetheless, the multiple links between
trade and health policy are well recognised (WHO 2002, Brundtland 1998;
Brundtland 1999), resulting in high-level meetings between the two
organizations since the late 1990s. At present, WHO holds official observer
status on the Council of the WTO, and committees relating to Sanitary and
Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT)
agreements. However, the capacity to articulate public health concerns
regarding, for example, the agreement on trade-related intellectual property
rights (TRIPS), has been hampered by the framing of health among trade
officials as a “non-trade issue”, and as such the reluctance of certain countries
to discuss health within the context of a trade negotiations. Moreover, the
ability of WHO to influence the WTO has been hampered by the fact that
states (many of which are members of both organizations) have accorded a
higher priority to trade issues, rather than those relating to human health. As
such, there remain considerable barriers to incorporating health as a
legitimate and worthy concern on the global trade agenda.

14
1.4.2 The different meanings of governance
As described above, the ability of a society to promote collective action and
deliver solutions to agreed goals is a central aspect of governance. As shown in
Table 1.1 the term governance has been used in a number of different ways,
ranging from the relatively narrow scope of corporate and clinical governance,
to the broader concept of global governance.
TABLE 1.1: VARIOUS USES OF THE TERM GOVERNANCE
TYPE OF GOVERNANCE CHARACTERISTICS
governance
• the actions and means to promote collective
action and deliver collective solutions
• "an exercise in assessing the efficacy of
alternative modes (means) of organization. The
object is to effect good order through the
mechanisms of governance" (Williamson 1996:
11)
• "The manner in which power is exercised in the
management of a country's economic and social
resources for development" (World Bank 1994)
corporate governance
• clear systems of transparency and
accountability to investors
• mechanisms for meeting social responsibility by
corporations
• "the framework of laws, regulatory institutions,
and reporting requirements that condition the
way that the corporate sector is governed"
(World Bank 1994)
good governance
(World Bank 1994)
• public sector management
• accountability of public sector institutions
• legal framework for development
• transparency and information
good governance (UNDP 1997)
• management of nations affairs
• efficiency, effectiveness and economy
• liberal democracy
• greater use of non-governmental sector
clinical governance
•
"a framework through which NHS organizations
are accountable for continuously improving the
quality of their services and safeguarding high
standards of care by creating an environment in
which excellence in clinical care will flourish"
(UK 1998)
global governance
• "not only the formal institutions and
organizations through which the rules and
norms governing world order are (or are not)
made and sustained - the institutions of the
state, inter-governmental co-operation and so
on - but also those organizations and pressure
groups - from
MNCs,
transnational social
movements to the plethora of non-governmental
organizations – which pursue goals and
objectives which have a bearing on
transnational rule and authority systems" (Held
et al. 1999)
Recent interest in governance within the development community can be
traced to the late 1980s as part of a desire among aid agencies to address the
uneven performance of low and middle-income countries to macro economic
reforms (Dia 1993). The term good governance was introduced by the World
Bank (1994) as an explanation for problems being experienced in many
countries, namely the weakness of public sector institutions and management,
and as a basis for setting further lending conditionalities. In this context,
governance is defined as “the manner in which power is exercised in the
management of a country’s economic and social resources of development.”

15
For governance to be "good", social and economic resources must be managed
by a small efficient state that is representative, accountable, transparent,
respectful of the rule of law, and supportive of human rights through
programmes of poverty reduction.
The conceptualisation and application of the term good governance by the
World Bank is seen by Leftwich (1993) as problematic in a number of ways.
First, he argues that it is an extension of neoliberal-based policies, (for
example, structural adjustment programmes) that are arguably themselves
contributing to the problems experienced by many countries since the 1980s.
Second, the World Bank focuses narrowly on the performance of public sector
administration and management, while ignoring the importance of good
governance for the private sector or donor communicty itself, along with levels
of foreign debt, in influencing how countries have fared. Third, the
prescriptive element of good governance again focuses on governments, while
at the same time adopting a technocratic view of how governments should
work.
Other development agencies have since taken up the term good governance as
important components of their policies
9
. The UN Development Programme
(UNDP) is a notable example. In seeking to go beyond public sector
management, UNDP (1997) has incorporated a range of principles into its
conceptualisation of good governance including legitimacy (democracy),
freedom of association, participation, and freedom of the media. As Deputy
Director of the UN Department for Development Support and Management
Services A.T.R. Rahman (1996) states, "good governance is an overall process
that is essential to economic growth, to sustainable development and to
fulfilling UN-identified objectives such as the advancement of women and
elimination of poverty".
10
Another increasingly used term is corporate governance. Williamson (1996)
defines corporate governance, for example, in terms of recent developments on
transaction-cost approaches in economic theory. He writes that governance
concerns institutional structures and accompanying practices (e.g. rules) that
facilitate economic production and exchange relations. "Good" governance
structures are those that effectively "mitigate hazards and facilitate
adaptation". These can be simple or complex depending on the degree of
hazard faced. Other writers on corporate governance similarly focus on
mechanisms that enhance economic transactions. The underlying assumption
of such approaches is that good corporate governance, in the form of improved
(more democratic) systems of accountability and transparency for investors,
will enhance the process of wealth creation and prevent greater regulation by
governments (McRitchie 1998).
A broader perspective on corporate governance is more closely related to the
definition of good governance put forth within the development community.
This approach focuses more directly on the nature of social responsibility by
business, rather than the enhancement of profits. There has been a growing
movement to encourage the corporate sector to be more responsible, not only
to shareholders, but to the wider communities within which they operate. The
notion of corporate responsibility and citizenship has thus arisen in relation to
such practices as fair trade, ethical investment and activist shareholders,
9
For the UK government’s view on good governance see Department for International Development
(DfID), Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21
st
Century (DfID, 1997). See also UN General
Assembly, Resolution 50/225, 1996.
10
Since completion of this paper, the UNDP Poverty Report 2000, has expanded on the link between
“good governance” and poverty relief.

16
social and environmental impact assessments, improved working conditions
for workers in low-income countries, and the social auditing of companies
(Cantarella 1996).
The values of management-oriented approaches to corporate governance have
entered the health lexicon in the guise of clinical governance. In the UK,
where the term that has become especially popular, clinical governance refers
to “a framework through which NHS [National Health Service] organizations
are accountable for continuously improving the quality of their services and
safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which
excellence in clinical care will flourish.” (UK 1998). Initially emerging as part
of health sector reform, it has been a response in particular to differences in
quality of care in parts of the country, and to public concerns regarding well-
publicised cases of poor clinical performance. The focus, therefore, has been
improving the quality of patient care through evidence based practice,
collecting information to measure performance against agreed standards,
providing ongoing education for health care professionals, and managing and
learning from complaints (Scally and Donaldson 1998). Institutional
mechanisms (e.g. National Institute for Clinical Excellence) and practices have
been introduced for these purposes (Paris and McKeown 1999; The King's
Fund 1999). Criticisms of clinical governance focus on whether there is
anything new about its aims. Some argue that clinical governance offers little
more than a confirmation of “the common sense message that we [doctors and
health professionals] must all strive after quality in practising medicine”
(Goodman 1998).
A further use of the term governance, and the focus of this paper, is global
governance which can be broadly defined as
not only the formal institutions and organizations through which
the rules and norms governing world order are (or are not) made
and sustained – the institutions of the state, inter-governmental co-
operation and so on – but also those organizations and pressure
groups – from MNCs, transnational social movements to the
plethora of non-governmental organizations – which pursue goals
and objectives which have a bearing on transnational rule and
authority systems.
(Held et al. 1999).
The concept of global governance has come to the health field from the
discipline of International Relations (IR) within which a diverse, and
theoretically riven, debate has developed on the specific nature of
globalization, the emerging global order, key actors, and ultimate goals of
global governance (Table 1.2). Liberal-internationalist scholars view the
purpose of global governance as ultimately moving towards a more liberal
democratic global order in which states and IGOs have equal roles. Within
such an order it is envisaged that power and influence will flow in a top-down
manner, although states and IGOs may be held accountable via a global
assembly composed of representatives from national and global civil society
(Commission on Global Governance 1995). In contrast, radical/critical
scholars believe that the direction of global governance should be guided from
the bottom-up. Emphasis is placed on the potential of actors from within
(global) civil society (in particular social movements) to bring about more
‘humane governance’ (Gill 1998). Cosmopolitan democrats pursue a vision of
global governance that embraces the diversity of people across national and
other forms of identity within a shared political community. This ideal may be
achieved, for instance, through consensus on universal principles (e.g. human
rights), increased public scrutiny of existing IGOs, global referendums and an

17
expanded international legal system (Held 1995; McGrew 1997). This is a
somewhat simplistic summary of a substantial and intellectually rich
literature.
11
TABLE 1.2: THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
CENTRAL ISSUE OF
GLOBAL
GOVERNANCE
LIBERAL-INTER
NATIONALISM
CRITICAL/RADICAL COSMOPOLITAN
DEMOCRACY
Globalization Multi-causal
process – generates
interdependence
and ‘zones of peace’
Economically driven –
subject to contradictions
Multi-causal process
with transformative
potential
Nature of the current
global order
Emerging post-
Westphalian order
Global neoliberalism Post-Westphalian
order
Actors in global
governance
States,
international
organizations
corporations and
NGOs etc.
Transnational capitalist
class, elites through
states, International
organization and civil
society.
States, peoples,
international
organization,
corporations and
social movements
Key actors in
collective problem
solving
States and
international
organization
Transnational capitalist
class, international
organization, states and
civil society.
States, international
organization,
corporations and
social movements
Nature of global
governance
Reformist and top-
down
Revolutionary and
bottom-up
Transformationalist
and participatory
Change towards Liberal democratic
consensus politics
Humane governance Cosmopolitan
democracy
Source: Adapted from McGrew A. (1997), “Globalization and Territorial Democracy: an
introduction” in McGrew A. ed., The Transformation of Democracy? (London: Polity Press), p.20.
To summarise, the concept of governance has generally been used in two
broad ways in relation to health. The first defines governance as a problem-
solving approach to address the shortfalls of public and private institutions to
function efficiently. Strongly influenced by recent developments in
management and economic theory, good or better governance is equated with
strengthening efficiency and effectiveness within existing institutional
structures. The second takes a more transformative approach by finding
existing forms of governance falling short in its responsiveness to the needs of
society as a whole. Faced with a range of intensifying and/or new risks and
opportunities, more effective governance is believed to be needed to respond to
social change. This volume is located within this second view in its efforts to
encourage wider discussion of the challenges posed by globalization, and the
clearer vision needed to address them through global governance.
1.4.3 The essential elements of global health governance
From the above discussion, we can identify some essential elements of GHG
and the challenges for achieving them. The first is the "deterritorialisation" of
how we think about and promote health, and thus the need to address factors
which cross, and even ignore, the geographical boundaries of the state. The
formation of the international system of states in the sixteenth century, the
birth of public health during the nineteenth century, and the creation of
national health systems in the twentieth century have contributed to a system
of governance that is premised on protecting the integrity of the state. IHG
has been historically focused on those health issues that cross national
borders, with the aim of protecting domestic populations within certain
defined geographical boundaries through such practices as quarantine, cordon
11
For a more detailed discussion see Hewson and Sinclair (1999).

18
sanitaire, and internationally agreed standards governing the reporting of
infectious disease, trade and population mobility. All of these efforts have
been focused on the point of contact, the national border of states.
However, forces of global change, in various forms, have intensified
crossborder activity to such an extent as to undermine the capacity of states
to control them. The increased levels of international trade and movement of
people are examples. Moreover, a wide range of others forces render national
borders irrelevant. The worldwide flows of information and communication
across the Internet; the ecological impacts of global environmental change; the
frenzied exchange of capital and finance via electronic media; the illicit trade
in drugs, food products and even people; and the global mobility of other life
forms (e.g. microbes) through natural (e.g. bird migration) and manmade (e.g.
bulk shipping) means render border controls irrelevant. Many of these global
changes impact on health and requires forms of cooperation that go beyond
IHG.
A second essential element of GHG is the need to define and address the
determinants of health from a multi-sectoral perspective. Biomedical
approaches to health have dominated historically in the form of disease-
focused research and policy, the skills mix of international health experts and
officials, and the primacy given to working through ministries of health and
health professionals. A global system of health governance begins with the
recognition that a broad range of determinants impact on population health
including social and natural environments. In recent decades, this has been
recognised to some extent through the increased involvement of other forms of
expertise in health policy making (e.g. economics, anthropology) and links with
other social sectors (e.g. education, labour). More recently, ministries of
health and international health organizations have sought to engage more
directly with sectors traditionally seen as relatively separate from health (e.g.
trade, environment, agriculture) in recognition of “cross sectoral” policy issues
at play. Informal consultations between WHO and WTO, for example, have
been prompted by the importance of multilateral trade agreements to health.
The main challenge to achieving greater cross sectoral collaboration lies in the
danger of casting the health “net” so widely that everything becomes
subsumed within the global health umbrella. Opening up GHG too
indiscriminately can dilute policy focus and impact, and raise questions about
feasibility. The linking of traditional health and non-health issues also
demands a clear degree of understanding and empirical evidence about cause
and effect. Defining the scope of GHG, therefore, remains a balance between
recognising the interconnectedness of health with a varied range of globalizing
forces, and the need to define clear boundaries of knowledge and action.
The third essential element of GHG is the need to involve, both formally and
informally, a broader range of actors and interests. As described above, while
nonstate actors have long been an important part of the scene, IHG has been
firmly state-defined. Health-related regional organizations (e.g. PAHO,
European Union), along with major international health organizations such as
WHO and the World Bank are formally governed by member states. Their
mandates, in turn, are defined by their role in supporting the national health
systems of those member states. The universality of their activities is
measured by the number of member states participating in them. Defining
criteria and measures of progress to address the burden of disease, health
determinants and health status are focused on the state or groups of states.
GHG, however, is distinguished by the starting point that globalization is
creating health needs and interests that increasingly cut across and, in some

19
cases, are oblivious to state boundaries. To effectively address these global
health challenges, there is a need to strengthen, supplement and even replace
existing forms of IHG. Importantly, this does not mean that the role of the
state or IHG will disappear or become redundant, but that they will rather
need to become part of a wider system of GHG. Many existing institutions will
be expected to play a significant role in GHG, and states will continue to be
key actors. However, states and state-defined governance alone is not enough.
Forms of governance that bring together more concertedly state and nonstate
actors will be central in a global era (Scholte 2000). As described by the
Commission on Global Governance (1995), “[global governance] must…be
understood as also involving NGOs, citizen’s movements, multinational
corporations, and the global capital market,” as well as a “global mass media
of dramatically enlarged influence.”
As described above, state and nonstate actors have long interacted on health
governance. The difference for GHG will lie in their degree of involvement and
nature of their respective roles, varying with the health issue concerned.
Three brief examples illustrate this. First, relations among the diverse NGO
community are constantly changing depending on the issue. On certain
issues, they may be willing to form strategic networks or alliances with other
NGOs, thus representing an important governance mechanism within GHG.
Such a mechanism was formed around the global campaign against the
marketing of breastmilk substitutes that led to the formation of the
International Baby Food Action Network. Cooperation among the International
Baby Food Action Network, UNICEF, WHO and selected governments led to the
International Code of Marketing on Breast-Milk Substitutes in 1981. Like-
minded NGOs also came together to form more permanent, but still highly
fluid, global social movements around the environment and women’s health.
These movements opposed each other at the UN Conference on the
Environment and Development (1992), yet worked together to propose an
alternative view of development at the World Summit for Social Development
in 1995. Close relations among the women’s health movement, national
governments and UNFPA was also a defining feature of the International
Conference on Population and Development (1994). Relations between the
women’s health movement and some states, in particular the US, were so
close that members of the women’s health movement served on some of the
official government delegations. Parties involved in the conference believed
that such close relations played a key role in shaping the resultant
commitment to reproductive health (Dodgson 1998).
A second example is the closer relations among state and nonstate actors
characterising the emerging global strategy on tobacco control. Under the
auspices of WHO, negotiations for a Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control (FCTC) have been attended by officially recognised NGOs, along with
state delegations. The Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), WHO maintains that NGO
participation is central to the overall success of the FCTC, and has supported
the creation of a global NGO network to support the FCTC (i.e. Framework
Convention Alliance). Links were also formed with representatives of the
women’s movement to ensure that tobacco and women’s health was discussed
during the Beijing Plus 5 process. At the same time, TFI has developed links
with the business community, in particular, the pharmaceutical industry, to
explore how nicotine replacement treatments can be made more widely
available. Other coordination efforts have been focused on bringing together
different UN organizations through the formation of a UN Ad Hoc Inter-Agency
Task Force on tobacco control, and the holding of public hearings to

20
encourage the submission of a wide range of evidence from different interest
groups.
12
These efforts to build formal links with such a diverse range of stakeholders to
support global tobacco control policy is unprecedented for WHO, and a good
example of emerging forms of GHG. It represents an important challenge to
traditional ways of working for WHO in its efforts to tackle health issues with
global dimensions (Collin et al. 2002). Ensuring state and nonstate actors
work collectively on different levels of governance (i.e. global, regional,
national
13
and subnational), the FCTC is an example of how “behind-the-
border” convergence could be promoted in the future. The goal of adopting a
legally binding treaty and associated protocols is also a new development in
institutionalising global governance in the health sector. The FCTC is based
on international regimes that have emerged to promote collective action on
global environmental problems. These international regimes can be defined as
“sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision-making
procedures around which actors expectations converge in a given area of
international relations” (Krasner 1983). In addition to the FCTC, other
examples of international regimes in the field of health are the International
Health Regulations
14
, the International Code for the Marketing of Breast Milk
Substitutes and the Codex Alimentarius (Kickbusch 1999). These examples of
international health regimes demonstrate that they have played a significant
role in IHG. The remit and organizational structure of the FCTC and its
implementation suggest that such regimes will be a core feature of GHG in
future.
A third example of state-nonstate governance is so-called global public-private
partnerships (GPPPs) defined as “a collaborative relationship which transcends
national boundaries and brings together at least three parties, among them a
corporation (and/or industry association) and inter-governmental
organizations, so as to achieve a shared health creating goal on the basis of a
mutually agreed division of labour” (Buse and Walt 2001). Among the most
prominent GPPPs are the Albendazole Donation Programme, Medicines for
Malaria Venture and International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The idea of building
partnerships with business is at the centre of UN-wide views on the
governance of globalization (Global Compact). For this reason, and the fact
that GPPPs bring much needed resources to major health issues, the number
of GPPPs is likely to grow in future. At the same time, like the FCTC process,
GPPPs require a period of reflection on a range of governance issues. Buse
and Walt (2001), for example, raise questions about accountability,
transparency and long-term sustainability of GPPPs. They also ask who
benefits, people who seek treatment or the pharmaceutical companies that
gain good public relations. Some governments of low-income countries, a
number of NGOs and UN institutions have expressed concerns about the
viability of building links among actors with fundamentally differing objectives
and interests. For example, Carole Bellamy, UNICEF Executive Director
comments, “it is dangerous to assume that the goals of the private sector are
12
Interview with Douglas Bettcher, Framework Convention Team, Tobacco Free Initiative, Geneva, 9
December 1999.
13
Technical documents that have been written as part of the consultation process for the FCTC suggest
that all signatory states should adopt an autonomous national tobacco control commission. See for
example, A. Halvorssen, “The Role of National Institutions in Developing and Implementing the WHO
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control”, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: Technical
Briefing Series, No.5 (1999).
14
Following a long process of review, the International Health Regulations (IHRs) are on the brink of
being reformed to make them more effective and binding on states. Most significantly, the revised IHRs
require the reporting of all “events of urgent international importance related to public health”.

21
somehow synonymous with those of the United Nations, because they most
emphatically are not.”
15
Thus, global health emphasises the need for governance that incorporates
participation by a broadly defined “global” constituency, and engaging them in
collective action through agreed institutions and rules. The challenges of
achieving GHG, defined in this way, are considerable. At the heart lies the
need to define the core concept of democracy in the context of globalization in
terms of political identity and representation. If existing forms of health
governance are seen to be undemocratic, alternatives that appropriately
balance actors and interests are needed. Systems for ensuring accountability
and transparency must be agreed. There requires greater clarity about what
contributions different actors make to GHG, and what governance
mechanisms can ensure that these roles are fulfilled. The issue of meaningful
participation and responsibility remains problematic. For example, the WHA is
attended by WHO member states but there are inequities in capacity to follow
proceedings and contribute to decision making. This is a challenge for many
international organizations including the WTO. Conflicts are also likely to
emerge and need to be resolved. The familiar yet enduring problem of
coordination of international health cooperation remains unresolved. Overall,
the principle of closer state-nonstate cooperation is an increasingly accepted
one, but the “nitty gritty” of what this should look like in practice is only
beginning to be explored within the health sector. This theme is taken up by
discussion papers on the potential role of civil society and the private sector in
this series.
1.5 CONCLUSIONS: BEGINNING TO DEFINE AND SHAPE THE
ARCHITECTURE FOR GHG
The task of defining and shaping a system of GHG in further detail, both as it
appears to be currently evolving and more prospectively, begins with a number
of important challenges for research and policy. The first, and perhaps the
most fundamental, is the need to agree the normative framework upon which
GHG can be built. There is a need to reach some degree of consensus about
the underlying moral and ethical principles that define global health
cooperation. As discussed in this paper, universalism has been a strong ethos
guiding the emergence of social medicine, the Health for All movement from
the late 1970s and, more recently, calls for health as a human right.
Alongside such communitarian ideas have been approaches informed by
principles of entitlement (economic or otherwise) and utilitarianism. Despite
recent high-profile initiatives on “global health”, an informed discussion about
their normative basis remains to be carried out.
A second challenge is the need to define leadership and authority in GHG. As
discussed above, health cooperation has evolved into an arena populated by a
complex array of actors operating at different levels of policy and
constituencies, with varying mandates, resources and authority. Figure 1 is
an attempt to identify the key actors potentially concerned with GHG and their
possible positions at a given point in time. WHO and the World Bank are
shown as central because they represent the main sources of health expertise
and development financing respectively. At the same time, they are
accompanied by a cluster of institutions, state and nonstate, that fan
outwards including, but are not restricted to, the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), United Nations Children’s Fund
15
Interview with J. Ann Zammit, The South Centre, 9
th
December 1999. “UNICEF: Bellamy
warns against partnership with private sector”, UN Wire, 23
rd
April (1999).

22
(UNICEF), International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), and United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA). Specific regional and bilateral institutions (e.g. USAID) are included
as politically and economically influential.
16
GHG also includes the wide
variety of actors within the private sector and civil society, the latter defined as
“a sphere of social interaction between economy and state, composed above all
of the intimate sphere (especially family), the sphere of associations (especially
voluntary associations) and forms of public communication” (Jareg and Kaseje
1998). Some of these actors (e.g. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) have
become highly prominent in recent years. Others, as described above,
including NGOs, social movements, epistemic communities, professional
associations and the mass media, can be influential on a more policy specific
basis.
FIGURE 1: GLOBAL HEALTH GOVERNANCE MAPPED
In this complex arena of actors, the issue of leadership and authority is a
difficult one. As well as setting the normative framework for global health
cooperation, leadership can provide the basis for generating public awareness,
mobilising resources, using resources rationally through coordinated action,
setting priorities, and bestowing or withdrawing legitimacy from groups and
causes. The willingness of states to ‘pool’ their sovereignty and act collectively
through mechanisms of GHG is one historically significant hurdle. The
absence of a single institution, with the authority and capacity to act
decisively, to address health issues of global concern is another. The panoply
of vested interests that characterise global politics represents another clear
difficulty. After the Second World War, the agreement to establish the World
Health Organization was prompted by a strong collective recognition of the
need to improve health worldwide. The global nature of many emerging health
issues, including the threat of major threats to humankind (e.g. emerging
diseases, antimicrobial resistance) may prompt similar consensus.
16
This is not to suggest of course that these are the only bilateral actors to play a role in international
health, United Kingdom’s Department for International Development is one many other such institutions.
ISSUE
CENTRE
WORLD
BANK
WHO
UNITED
STATES
IMF
WTO
UNICEF
DEVELOPING
COUNTRIES
DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES
UNDP
ILO
UNFPA
NGOs
SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
MEDIA
TNCs
EPISTEMIC
COMMUNITIES
INDIVIDUALS
RESEARCH
INSTITUTIONS
RELIGIOUS
GROUPS
Figure 4: Global health governance mapped

23
A third challenge for GHG is the need to generate sufficient resources for
global health cooperation and distribute them appropriately according to
agreed priorities. The present system is ad hoc in nature, reliant on the
annual spending decisions of governments, and the goodwill of private citizens
and companies. Efforts to provide debt relief and increase development
assistance recognise the inherent inequities of current forms of globalization
(UNDP 1999). Recent discussions about the creation of a Tobin Tax or
equivalent surcharge, on global activities that rely on a secure and stable
world (e.g. financial transactions, air travel), could generate substantial and
much needed sums.
Fourth, the sovereignty of states is also a hurdle to giving “teeth” to global
health initiatives because of the lack of effective enforcement mechanisms.
With the exception of the International Health Regulations, which in itself is
highly circumscribed in remit, WHO can recommend rather than command
action by member states. The reporting of outbreaks of yellow fever, cholera
and plague, for example, is traditionally reliant on governments who may not
be willing to report such information for fear of causing adverse economic
reactions. By definition, a global health issue is one where the actions of a
party in one part of the world can have widespread consequences in other
parts of the world. Reliance on voluntary compliance with agreed practices,
such as the use of antibiotics and antimicrobials, without sufficient
monitoring and enforcement, can lead to serious and even irreversible health
impacts.
Finally, the enigma of how to achieve a more pluralist, yet cohesive, system of
GHG stands before us. As the globalization of health continues, health
governance will have to become broader in participation and scope. The proto
forms of GHG that are presently emerging (e.g. FCTC, GPPPs) might be seen as
examples of improving practice as they open up participation in health
governance to a wider range of actors. Nonetheless, a critical evaluation of
these forms of governance is yet to be undertaken, nor is it yet clear whether
these emerging forms of GHG will achieve their objectives.
The task of moving forward this complex, yet much needed, debate can be
facilitated by a number of further tasks that are the focus of future discussion
papers in this series. The purpose of this paper has been to review the
conceptual meaning of GHG and, in turn, to highlight the challenges faced in
moving towards such a system. A second task is to better understand the
historical context of IHG and GHG, and how this can inform the transition
from one to the other. Many different types of governance mechanisms for
health purposes have been tried and tested since the end of the Second World
War, and it would be useful to explore these in relation to the criteria set in
this paper. This is the subject of Discussion Paper No. 2.
The next task is to better understand the “nitty gritty” of global governance in
terms of what, in concrete terms, it looks like in practice. This moves us into
the legal realm where international lawyers have grappled with the formulation
and implementation of governance at the global level. An examination of what
currently exists within the health field, as well as other fields such as trade
and environment, may shed light on future possibilities. While such a review
can only be selective in nature, it can point to lessons for building
mechanisms for GHG. This is the subject of Discussion Paper No. 3.
Lastly, there is the task of defining more clearly the potential role of nonstate
actors within a system of GHG. Relationships, patterns of influence and
agreed roles among state and nonstate actors within an emerging system of
GHG are still emerging. This myriad of different actors, each with individual

24
spheres of activity, types of expertise, resources, interests and aspirations,
cannot yet be described as a "global society". As defined by Fidler (1998b), a
global society is "made of individuals and non-state entities all over the world
that conceive of themselves as part of a single community and work nationally
and transnationally to advance their common interests and values." The ad
hoc nature of GHG so far, however, suggests that a more concerted effort to
define and describe existing and potential roles would contribute to policy
debates on possible future directions. The potential role of civil society in
GHG is the subject of Discussion Paper No. 4, and the potential role of the
private sector is examined in Discussion Paper No. 5.

25
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