INVITATION FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION ON GLOBAL HEALTH POLICY
for the
3rd ISA Forum of Sociology
"The Futures We Want: Global Sociology and the Struggles for a Better World"
July 10-14th 2016, Vienna, Austria

Panel on “Global Health Policy: From the MDGs to the SDGs”

Research Committee: RC19 Sociology of Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy (host committee)

Global health policy can be considered to have multiple dimensions and applications. The UN Millennium Campaign and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have helped prioritizing certain global health causes and garnering resources to reach these targets. Currently a considerable part of the debates are around the post-2015 development agenda. The draft Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposal includes a health goal including the aim of universal coverage and risk protection. In addition, the Ebola crisis has re-focused attention on the importance of health systems in global health policy initiatives.

Global health policy actors of various kinds engage in these debates. Examples are the WHO, the World Bank, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Gates Foundation. The increasing involvement of non-traditional players from the South is also arguably bringing new perspectives, challenges and opportunities to global health. Despite a widespread willingness to coordinate initiatives and pool resources, these actors may have differing priorities and may compete for power or scarce resources. In the absence of one organisation with the responsibility to coordinate the activities of these actors, global governance for health is becoming more fragmented.

This regular session (maximum five 20-minute presentations) is organised by Tuba Agartan, Alexandra Kaasch and Marian Urbina and invites paper submissions on topics of global health policy with a particular focus on the MDGs, SDGs, health systems, and on any relevant global health policy actor or the relationships between them (global health governance). We welcome papers that explore the global level of policymaking, or the impact of global health actors and policies on national health systems.

DEADLINE for submissions is 30 September 2015.

Abstracts (300 words max) can be submitted in English, French or Spanish. Please go tohttp://www.isa-sociology.org/forum-2016/

We would like to encourage all researchers on topics related to global health policy in its various dimensions to join us for intense and lively discussion in Vienna, and to use this platform for potential future collaboration on some of these issues. We particularly would like to encourage younger researchers to share their ideas and projects.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with the session organisers Tuba Agartan (tagartan@providence.edu), Alexandra Kaasch (alexandra.kaasch@uni-bielefeld.de) or Marian Urbina (urbina-ferretjans@unu.edu).