Framing global health: The governance challenge

Abstract

With the emergence of global health comes governance challenges which are equally global in nature. This article identifies some of the initial limitations in analyses of global health governance (GHG) before discussing the focus of this special supplement: the framing of global health issues and the manner in which this impacts upon GHG. Whilst not denying the importance of material factors (such as resources and institutional competencies), the article identifies how issues can be framed in different ways, thereby creating particular pathways of response which in turn affect the potential for and nature of GHG. It also identifies and discusses the key frames operating in global health: evidence-based medicine, human rights, security, economics and development.

Keywords:

• global health
• global health governance
• frames and framing

Acknowledgements

This research has been made possible through funding from the European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme – Ideas Grant 230489 GHG. All views expressed remain those of the authors.

Notes

1. Not least in the policy world, where maternal health care featured prominently in both the 2010 UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the G8 meeting of the same year. In 2011 the UN held a summit on non-communicable diseases (NCDs).