ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a case study of the Marriage and Divorce bill in Uganda, which first came to wide public knowledge in 2014. This pro-women legislation was publicly rejected by women themselves, leaving many to wonder why given violence against women remains a priority issue globally. The case study illuminates that where agendas are set in the absence of everyday people, they often present incomplete pictures of what is required for change. From this starting point, this chapter presents an analysis of agenda setting within global health. By focusing on different forms of power at work within in the disciplinary domain, it interrogates how processes at the core of global health praxis – knowledge production through medical and scientific special issues – can move us further from the types of action needed to implement change. Using a 2014 Lancet series on violence against women as one such example, I suggest that when this type of power is leveraged, actors and movements simultaneously help and hinder the achievement of their own desires.
