ABSTRACT
This chapter explores processes as a window into the workings of global health generally, and as a guide to those who seek to pursue such idealistic goals in the future. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) is widely recognized as an extraordinary humanitarian enterprise, made possible in part by its political neutrality. In 1988, the World Health Assembly resolved to eradicate polio globally by the year 2000. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference approved a resolution in October 2003 urging member countries to hasten eradication, and also helped GPEI secure pro-vaccination fatwas from the Islamic Fiqh Academy. The greater good of polio eradication is not self-evident; rather, each locality judges the GPEI by the amount of good it brings to their community in particular. This makes it a practical necessity, as well as a moral obligation that eradicators earn their trust the hard way, listening to and answering the needs of the people, if they are to reach their goal.
