ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the problems of global health governance (GHG) by considering the competing political projects that underpin respective GHG conceptions, the actors that represent, defend, and advance them, and the structures that frame debates and policy initiatives. It explores the changing nature and orientation of GHG from the Alma Ata conference of 1978 to the Okinawa G8 summit of 2000. The chapter also explores the political legacies of two phases of global governance, in broad-brush terms of social democracy and neoliberalism, as a backdrop against which to chart, analyze, and interpret shifts in the GHG discourses. The twin roles of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and social movements in constructing a governance-relevant "complex multilateralism" in the more general sense is discernible in their persistence to promote more comprehensive conceptions of social justice. The chapter examines inputs into the GHG discourse from a wide spectrum of actors, ranging from the World Health Organization through to activist NGOs.
