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Abstract
Existing research points to the presence of philanthropists in global governance as funders of programmes and partners. Through an in-depth exploration of global health governance, we highlight that philanthropic organizations now shape governance by acting as producers of knowledge. Practicing ‘knowledge philanthropism’, they collect, produce and assemble the data, calculations and research which is used by International Organizations (IOs) to govern problems. In addition, philanthropies craft tools of interpretation, whether concepts, vocabularies, or concrete technological devices that embed these, which are being used for the treatment of the knowledge they themselves produce. While performing such activities, they reify their own role and enable their deeper entanglement in the knowledge machinery of global governance, fashioning data-centric activities as the solution to global health problems, and themselves as the necessary partners in this resource-intensive data collection effort. The epistemic power of philanthropists produces political effects, on health interventions and modes of governing, which deeply participate to the transformation of all matters into objects of investments for financial returns. We explore these processes in relation to global health governance, with a specific focus on medical hypertension, fashioned as a top global health priority and a necessary ‘investment’ by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other sites of global governance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
2 Interview with WHO Health Official, 21-01-2020.
3 Interview with WHO Health Official, 21-01-2020.
4 See for instance the WHO’s Guide on the prevention of drowning, also funded and drafted by Bloomberg: 9789241511933-eng.pdf
5 ‘Data for Health’ website; https://www.bloomberg.org/public-health/strengthening-health-data/data-for-health/
6 Johns Hopkins Global Health Centre, https://hopkinsglobalhealth.org/faculty-research/project-map/bloomberg-data-for-health–-non-communicable-diseases–d4h-ncd–surveillan/
7 Interview with Health Expert, Organization funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, 06-11-2020.
8 Interview with Health Expert, Health Organization funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, 18-11-2022; interview with Health Official, civil society organization, 04-06-2020.
9 Interview with WHO Health Official, 21-01-2020.
10 Interview with Health Expert, Health Organization funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, 06-11-2022.
11 Interview with Health Expert, Health Organization funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, 06-11-2020.
12 Interview with Health Expert, Health Organization funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, 06-11-2020.
13 RTSL website, https://linkscommunity.org/about/#basis
14 Interview with WHO Health Official, 27-10-2022.
15 See RTSL website, https://linkscommunity.org/toolkit/hypertension-six-steps/
16 Simple app website, https://www.simple.org/
17 Interview with Health Expert, Health Organization funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, 18-11-2022.
18 Interview with Health Official, Bloomberg Philanthropies, 03-10-2022.
19 Simple app website, ‘Background, Simple Docs’, https://docs.simple.org/readme/background
20 Simple app website: https://www.simple.org/
21 Ibid.
22 Interview with Health Expert, Health Organization funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, 18-11-2022.
23 Bloomberg Philanthropies website, https://mobilesurveys.freshdesk.com/support/home See also mobile phone survey questionnaire, file:///C:/Users/annab/Downloads/IVR.pdf
24 Johns Hopkins Centre for Global Health website, ‘Non-Communicable Diseases (D4H-NCD) surveillance project’, https://hopkinsglobalhealth.org/faculty-research/project-map/bloomberg-data-for-health–-non-communicable-diseases–d4h-ncd–surveillan/
25 ‘Bloomberg Philanthropies Renews Grant with Johns Hopkins for Development of Mobile Phone Surveys in Low-and Middle-Income Countries’, 2 December 2019.
26 The D4H-NCD surveillance project conducted by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, includes monitoring the STEPwise approach: https://hopkinsglobalhealth.org/faculty-research/project-map/bloomberg-data-for-health–-non-communicable-diseases–d4h-ncd–surveillan/
27 RTSL website, ‘Calculating lives saved by cardiovascular health interventions’: https://resolvetosavelives.org/cardiovascular-health/lives-saved-calculator
28 Interview with IHME Researcher, 18-10-2022.
29 Interview with WHO Health Official, 21-01-2020.
30 Interview with Health Expert, Health Organization funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, 06-01-2020.
31 Interview with Health Expert, Health Organization funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, 18-11-2022.
32 Interviews with health experts, November 2022.
33 Interview with WHO Health Official, 05-11-2020.
34 Website of Bloomberg Philanthropies, ‘Rely on Data’, https://www.bloomberg.org/approach/rely-on-data/
35 Interview with Health Official, Blomberg Philanthropies, 03-10-2022.
36 Simple app website, https://www.simple.org/simple-app/
37 Interview with IHME Researcher, 18-10-2022.
Additional information
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Notes on contributors
Annabelle Littoz-Monnet
Annabelle Littoz-Monnet is Professor in Political Science and International Relations at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. She has been working on global governance, the politics of knowledge and expertise, global epistemic infrastructures and the privatization of global governance. Her book Governing through Expertise. The Politics of Bioethics came out with Cambridge University Press in 2020. She is also the editor of The Politics of Expertise in International Organizations. How International Bureaucracies Produce and Mobilize Knowledge published with Routledge in 2017.
Ximena Osorio Garate
Ximena Osorio Garate is a PhD candidate in International Relations and Political Science at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Her doctoral thesis investigates technologies of reproductive control and how they are mobilized for political violence. Her research interests include gendered and political violence, reproductive health and justice, the history of medicine and knowledge and global health politics.