Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
If global health initiatives are to be successful in eradicating disease, support
from development agencies is important. but so, too, is action on the other issues
that pose problems for health delivery in resource-poor countries. the development
agencies fail to look beyond the work being done on infectious diseases and other
global initiatives. Because of insufficient discussion and because those other health
challenges are not identified, the development agencies are not prepared to address
these issues appropriately in their oDa programmes.
an additional sore point is that the oDa policies on global health were slow to
recognise the HIV/AIDS crisis. The response has definitely improved, but there is
no explanation of why it took close to two decades for real action on this problem.
Discussions of early warning systems, new concepts for global health, action on
behalf of the most vulnerable, and the use of statistics to indicate emergencies would
be useful in the oDa strategies to improve the response to health challenges.
overall, however, the oDa policies show movement on the global health front
in the development strategies of the UK, the U.S., and canada. Such movement is
geared mostly to the challenge of infectious diseases and is supported by a consensus
on the need for concerted global action. but the oDa policies do not demonstrate
a strong recognition of the other global health challenges that are upcoming and
amplified by global health initiatives. There is little thinking on how to complement
the newest mechanisms that address health concerns or on planning to prevent
future crises, including an examination of what was missed in the case of HIv/aIDS
developing into the state of emergency it is today. oDa remains more reactionary in
the context of global health than being a proactive plan for a comprehensive global
health governance system that it would work alongside global health intiatives.
The Current Global Health Governance Process
through this assessment of global health governance mechanisms, global health
initiatives emerge as an important and innovative response to a longstanding problem,
while oDa is not setting the pace in addressing other health challenges. what does
this say about the global health governance process and agenda? How can the system
be improved? Several themes emerge in response.
The first theme is convergence. The increase of global health initiatives in the
current context is largely due to the convergence of the security and development
agendas, which has pushed the threat of infectious diseases and potential pandemics
to the top of the global agenda. Such linking ensures that issues get support from
those that have the resources to deliver. In terms of eliciting action, the U.S. has been
interested in addressing matters that are couched in a security framework. Indeed,
this focus has become exaggerated so that the response to infectious diseases is
no longer seen as a global public good but rather as a way to prevent bioterrorism
and provide security. this form of linkage can therefore be counterproductive as it
distorts the larger health governance agenda.
