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Research Projects

The research of the GHP could be structured in several broader categories exploring:

  • the multiplication of actors on the global level and the new forms of governance for health emerging on the national, regional and global level. A key question in this regard has been how should different stakeholders be involved in the process of preparation and implementation?
  • powershift between different countries and regions: key questions in this respect have been: What is the global responsibility of the rising powers and emerging economies? What new issues of representation and legitimacy are emerging? How do national and international health policies interface – particularly with reference to global public goods? What new role do regional organisations and “clubs” play?
  • The role of WHO, within the broader questions for the role of the UN system and its specialized health agency. How should the be reformed to respond to rising accountability standards? How do international organisations need to change to be relevant and effective?
  • Health and foreign policy: How can ethical, economic and political considerations be balanced as the basis of every health policy? Can the lessons learned from addressing infectious diseases be applied to the global burden of non-communicable diseases? What approaches have governments taken to increase coherence, transparency and accountability for health across different ministries?

Overview of the different research projects of the GHP: 

The interim report “Supporting Health 2020 – Governance for Health in the 21st Century” commissioned by the WHO Regional Office for Europe provides policy makers with examples from around the world of how whole of government and whole of society approaches have been implemented. Furthermore, a set of process tools to manage the complex policy process and best practice examples with model character covering a wide variety of different contexts and countries have been provided in the study. These examples were related to the priorities areas set by the Health 2020 policy framework and the study particularly aims at contributing to the Health 2020 strategic policy objective of “improving leadership and participatory governance for health”. In this context, health is more and more understood as a product of complex and dynamic relations generated by numerous determinants at different levels of governance. Determinants may be social, but increasingly also political and commercial. Governments need to take into account the impact of this wide variety of health determinants as well as the overall societal conditions including economic constraints, demographic changes and unhealthy lifestyles in many European countries. A country’s health system alone has neither the capacities nor the adequate steering instruments to solve such multi-dimensional problems in a substantial and comprehensive way. As a consequence, the study seeks to show how shared governance already takes place in many occasions and how values and accountability can be uphold across different sectors and a great variety of stakeholders. Criteria for modern policy-making are established and shown how the bringing together of a variety of different stakeholders may – if managed well – create synergies and be mutually supportive in democratic political systems.  

  • Governance for Health in the 21st Century by Kickbusch, Ilona; Gleicher, David
    A study on Governance for Health in the 21st Century has been conducted for the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. This study feeds directly into the development of the new European Policy for Health - Health2020 and has been made available to all member States of the WHO European Region. It is also freely available at the WHO Euro website in the subsection with documents for the 61st session of the Regional Committee for Europe in two languages. In this study forewarded by the WHO Regional Director for Europe Zsuzsanna Jakab, ‘governance for health’ is defined as the attempts of governments or other actors to steer communities, countries or groups of countries in the pursuit of health as integral to wellbeing through both a ‘whole-of-government’ and a ‘whole-of-society’ approach. It positions health and well-being as key features of what constitutes a successful society and a vibrant economy in the 21st century and grounds policies and approaches in values such as human rights and equity. Governance for health promotes joint action of health and non-health sectors, of public and private actors and of citizens for a common interest. It requires a synergistic set of policies, many of which reside in sectors other than health as well as sectors outside of government, which must be supported by structures and mechanisms that enable collaboration. It gives strong legitimacy to health ministers and ministries and to public health agencies, to help them reach out and perform new roles in shaping policies to promote health and wellbeing.
     

This working paper was a lobbying document to inform and advocate for the European Commission to include global health in its next round of ERC Research Funding.

‘Europe is well placed to take a lead role in developing global health research and innovation. This paper explores the potential and makes recommendations for Europe’s role in research and innovation to improve global health. It highlights the need for coherence between Horizon 2020 and other key EU policies, including that on the EU’s role in global health, and the potential for global health research to play an instrumental role in achieving Europe 2020 goals of growth, innovation and social inclusion. Recommendations for research mechanisms and strategies to develop Europe’s role in and progress global health research and innovation include: special mechanisms to promote and support research that is cross-sectoral and interdisciplinary, involving both technological and social innovation; special mechanisms to ensure continued fair, equitable and needs-oriented collaboration with LMICs, including joint priority and agenda setting, management, exploitation of results; research that acknowledges the ‘right to health’ and European values in health such as equity, universality and access; innovation stimuli which take into account the special characteristics of health technologies and products, such as long lead times, high intensity of investments, high attrition rates, and the lack market incentives for investing in medicines for poor populations; previous experience has shown the gains to be achieved from global, collaborative health research and that some innovations can only occur on a regional/international level; the large and complex character of many global health challenges makes them particularly suited to a ‘grand challenges’ approach to developing global health, which involves cross-sectoral research conducted by multinational consortia within and beyond the EU.’

  • Comparative Analysis of Platforms related to Non Communicable Diseases Report (2011) (Consultancy undertaken by Dr. Samantha Battams, GHP for the Swiss Office of Public Health)

The Global Health Programme was commissioned by the Swiss government to research platforms on NCDs and related collaborative platforms in order for them to advise the WHO on establishing an NCD monitoring platform for data, good practices and voluntary commitments. This project was asked to consider some specific quetsions. In order to answer these questions, the process included: research on policy documents surrounding the NCD Political Declaration; research on current academic articles on the NCDs debate; speaking to ‘key informants’ from networks related to NCDs and monitoring initiative (NCD Alliance, Health Metrics Network, PePsico/IFBA); Internet/document researchon selected platforms and their monitoring mechanisms, along with any evaluation or advice on ‘lessons learnt’ from the platforms.
 

  • Mapping Asian Actors’ Engagements in Global Health Governance

The Global Health Programme has contributed to the larger project on Global Governance coordinated by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore by conducting a research study mapping the contemporary influence of Asian actors in negotiations of Global Health Governance (GHG). The objectives of this research study are reviewing the representation of Asian actors in contemporary literature, identifying the role of Asian actors within selected key institutions involved in global health governance agenda-setting, and analysing the policies and influences of Asian nation-states on global health. This qualitative research project will be based on a review of institutional publications as well as interviews with relevant health attachés and representatives of select Geneva-based organizations involved in global health governance agenda setting (i.e. the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria; the World Economic Forum; World Trade Organization TRIPS Council; GAVI Alliance). S.T. Lee Project on Global Governance