Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and an implicit attempt to regulate the conduct of transnational corporations. It thus
has broader implications for global health governance.
Part VI, 'Defining Future Directions in Global Health Governance,' turns from
case studies to the general issue of governance. In chapter 13, 'Forging the trade
link in Global Health Governance', benedikte Dal, laura Sunderland, and nick
Drager argue that to effectively manage health risks that spill into and out of national
borders, domestic health planners must work in tandem with their counterparts in
foreign affairs and trade to attain policy convergence. only through international
cooperation and collective action can governments seek to address the multiple
and inherently complex public health risks in an increasingly globalised world. as
international trade is a major amplifier of public health risks across borders, states
must develop robust population health policies prior to their integration into trade
organisations and agreements. responses to global health challenges increasingly
require expertise in several disciplines. Multiple actors with often competing interests
must be persuaded to reconcile their differences so that effective policies designed
to mitigate health risks may be developed. thus the emerging new discipline of
health diplomacy is urgently in need of development. the concept and processes
of health diplomacy are illustrated by the Intergovernmental working Group on
Public Health, Innovation, and Intellectual Property (IGwG), a body formed in 2007
to facilitate the work of the wHo's commission on Intellectual Property rights,
Innovation, and Public Health (cIPIH). the IGwG is an example of how evidence-
based trade and health policy convergence can be attained through an inclusive and
cooperative process, based upon the principles of trust and transparency, and the
inclusion of performance measures to permit ongoing evaluation.
In chapter 14 'explaining compliance with G8 Health commitments,
1996-2006', John Kirton, Nikolai Roudev, Laura Sunderland, and Catherine Kunz
examine why plurilateral and informal soft law bodies such as the G8 increasingly
work with traditional international organisations to advance pressing international
health issues. beginning in the 1980s the G8 began to involve itself in health issues
because of the growing vulnerability of its members states to emerging and re-
emerging infectious diseases, and a shared perception that the wHo was an ineffective
leader in addressing global health challenges. the authors outline several schools of
thought on the role of the G8 in strengthening global health governance, explain why
G8 members comply with their respective health commitments, and identify how G8
leaders can craft their commitments in ways that improve compliance, by setting a
one-year timetable and involving the wHo.
In chapter 15, 'Global Health Initiatives: a Healthy Governance response?'
caroline Khoubessarian argues that official development assistance shortfalls and
an under-funded wHo are the primary drivers of global health initiatives, such as
funds set up through international organisations or large private foundations that
typically focus on the prevention, control, or eradication of specific diseases. The
successes of initiatives such as the International campaign to ban landmines and
the Jubilee Debt campaign demonstrate that broad coalitions working outside
of the traditional system can bring about positive change. Khoubessarian identifies
