Global health governance
We are in transition from what seemed a relatively reliable state defined and structured world of international health to a diffuse political space of global health in which new forms of distributed power and new patterns of power sharing emerge….even the most cursory analysis of global health governance shows that existing mechanisms of governance and resource flows are insufficient to address the problems at stake and to generate the political will necessary for action.
Kickbusch, Ilona Global health governance: Some theoretical considerations on the New Political Space. In Lee, K. (ed) Globalization and Health. London Palgrave 2003,
A new governance space: Exploring the expanded responsibility for health within society has always been at the core of Ilona Kickbusch’s work and she has pushed the agenda both in her academic work and her work at the WHO. At present her main interest lies in analyzing the new political space of global health which allows for new forms of power and new patterns of powersharing to emerge and in understanding the nature and potential of network governance in the global health arena. Innovative governance approaches are of particular importance to reach new global health targets such as the Millennium Development Goals and the challenges set by the global surge in chronic disease.
NEW: Most recently she has contributed to the global governance debate through a proposal – developed jointly with Gaudenz Silberschmidt and Don Matheson – for a new governance mechanism at the World Health Organisation: Creating a committee C of the World Health Assembly. This was published in The Lancet 2008; 371:1483-1486
Forthcoming: Moving Global Health Governance forward. Chapter 15 in: Buse et al Making Sense of Global Health Governance. A Policy Perspective. Palgrave MacMillan 2009
Health as a global public good: A key factor in these consideration is the discussion of health as a global public good. An outline of Ilona Kickbusch’s thinking on global health governance can be found in the paper prepared for the Meeting on Global Health Governance and Accountability, 2-3 June 2004 Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, Constructing Global Public Health in the 21st Century by Ilona Kickbusch and Lea Payne (*.pdf) . She has further explored the concept of global public goods as applied to health in relation to infectious diseases (*.pdf) and in relation to healthy urban futures (*.pdf). In Deutsch: Gesundheit als globales öffentliches Gut. Politorbis No. 39 3/2005 (*.pdf), www.eda.admin.ch/politorbis.
Some key readings:
- Global Public Health. (with B. Seck) In: Douglas et al (eds) Challenge and Controversy in promoting Public health. Sage in association with the Open University, London 2007
- European Perspectives in Global health: A Policy Glossary. (with Graham Lister) European Foundation Center, Brussels 2006 (*.pdf)
- La
santé mondiale dépend plus de Bill Gates que de l’OMS
Crise - La multiplication des acteurs et la démission des Etats provoquent l’anarchie. - A wake-up call for Global Health. Op-ed in the International Herald Tribune Tuesday, April 29, 2003
- Influence and opportunity: Observations on the US role in global public health. In: Health Affairs, November/December 2002, Vol.21, Nr. 6 pg 131-141 (*.pdf) (to be reprinted in a reader on Global Health Governance forthcoming autumn 2003)
- Global Health Governance: some new theoretical considerations on the new political space. Chapter in Lee, K. (ed) Globalization and Health. London Palgrave 2003, pg. 192-203
- Partnerships for health in the 21st century (with Johnathan Quick). In: World Statistics Quarterly, Vol.51. No.1, 1998, pp 68-74.
- New Players for a new era: responding to the global public health challenges. The Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother Lecture, Newcastle, UK, 28. Journal of Public Health Medicine, Vol. 9, No.2, 1997, pp171-178
