Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
center Guinea worm eradication Program (2005), and GavI (formerly the Global
alliance for vaccines and Immunisation; 2000). the precursors to such mechanisms
were the wHo's Smallpox eradication Programme (1967), rotary International's
PolioPlus campaign (1985), and the International aIDS vaccine Initiative (IavI;
1996). this list indicates the proliferation of global health initiatives in scope and
targeting.
Conceptually, these initiatives are funds that focus on one specific disease or set
of diseases and concentrate their efforts—the raising and disbursement of funds—on
eradicating those diseases. they set out guidelines to encourage the development
of projects where they are most needed based on an analysis of the spread of the
infectious disease and the existing response to it (or lack thereof). the wHo views
global health initiatives as working alongside public-private partnerships (PPP) to
set out a global strategy and inject additional resources into the system to target
specific diseases. As such this instrument is regarded positively as being 'one of the
benefits of globalization' (WHO 2008).
Global health initiatives are commonly created by international organisations.
However, one of their most striking aspects is that they can also be established by
large private foundations led by well-recognised international figures. Indeed, these
are initiatives that have the capacity and funds to have a deep global impact. those
global health initiatives mentioned above, and a number of other initiatives, all
have in common the creation of a focal point for actors to mobilise and contribute
significant resources to the eradication of a particular disease. An initiative as a
vehicle for rallying these actors elevates the issue above individual government
ministries, states, and international agencies, breaking down silos so that individual
and autonomous projects can become part of a larger global strategy. Such attributes,
in addition to the sheer intensity of their approach, indicate that these initiatives must
be taken seriously as innovative instruments of global governance.
Such global campaigns or network-like structures are not exclusive to health
initiatives; a mixture of global actors have come together in the past to cooperate
on other global issues. these include the International campaign to ban landmines
that formed in 1992 and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, the 2000 Jubilee
Debt campaign launched in 1996, and the relief efforts after the tsunami in the
Indian ocean on 26 December 2004. Generally, these multi-level campaigns were
established because there was an understanding that the problems they addressed,
which were cross-sectoral and cross-border in nature, required a collaborative effort
involving many actors outside traditional mechanisms. In terms of process, these
campaigns went around the established institutions. In terms of composition they
were composed of both state and non-state actors.
this rise in these complex global initiatives does not necessarily indicate that
states are failing to respond, but rather that traditional governance mechanisms
cannot always satisfy the novel and all-encompassing global dimensions of
emerging problems alone (Dodgson, lee, and Drager 2002, 19). typically these
initiatives have the support of significant resources both from governments and
private sources such as foundations and private citizens. Global health initiatives
