Decolonizing Health Governance: A Uganda Case Study on the Influence of Political History on Community Participation.

This paper presents a case study of how colonial legacies in Uganda have affected the shape and breadth of community participation in health system governance. Using Habermas's theory of deliberative democracy and the right to health, we examine the key components required for decolonizing health governance in postcolonial countries. We argue that colonization distorts community participation, which is critical for building a strong state and a responsive health system.

'It's far too complicated': why fragmentation persists in global health.

Background: Despite many efforts to achieve better coordination, fragmentation is an enduring feature of the global health landscape that undermines the effectiveness of health programmes and threatens the attainment of the health-related Sustainable Development Goals. In this paper we identify and describe the multiple causes of fragmentation in development assistant for health at the global level. The study is of particular relevance since the emergence of new global health problems such as COVID-19 heightens the need for global health actors to work in coordinated ways.

UHC2030's Contributions to Global Health Governance that Advance the Right to Health Care: A Preliminary Assessment.

The September 2019 United Nations High Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) aims to mobilize top-level political support for action on UHC to advance the health Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). A driving force behind this meeting is the "UHC Movement," led by UHC2030, which focuses on coordinating and amplifying efforts by WHO, the World Bank, civil society, and the private sector to strengthen health systems and achieve UHC. In line with Horton and Das, this paper contends that while the argument about UHC is won, it is crucially important to focus on "how" UHC will be delivered, and specifically, whether ongoing efforts to advance UHC align with efforts to realize the right to health.

The global fight against trans-fat: the potential role of international trade and law.

Non-communicable diseases in general and cardiovascular diseases in particular are a leading cause of death globally. Trans-fat consumption is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. The World Health Organization's 'REPLACE' action package of 2018 aims to eliminate it completely in the global food supply by 2023.

The integration of the global HIV/AIDS response into universal health coverage: desirable, perhaps possible, but far from easy.

Background: The international community's health focus is shifting from achieving disease-specific targets towards aiming for universal health coverage. Integrating the global HIV/AIDS response into universal health coverage may be inevitable to secure its achievements in the long run, and for expanding these achievements beyond addressing a single disease. However, this integration comes at a time when international financial support for the global HIV/AIDS response is declining, while political support for universal health coverage is not translated into financial support.

Threat of compulsory licences could increase access to essential medicines.

and argue that low and middle income countries could increase access to medicines by forming an alliance to credibly threaten companies with compulsory licences

Building the case for embedding global health security into universal health coverage: a proposal for a unified health system that includes public health.

In the wake of the recent west African Ebola epidemic, there is global consensus on the need for strong health systems; however, agreement is less apparent on effective mechanisms for establishing and maintaining these systems, particularly in resource-constrained settings and in the presence of multiple and sustained stresses (eg, conflict, famine, climate change, and globalisation). The construction of the International Health Regulations (2005) guidelines and the WHO health systems framework, has resulted in the separation of public health functions and health-care services, which are interdependent in actuality and must be integrated to ensure a continuous, unbroken national health system. By analysing efforts to strengthen health systems towards attaining universal health coverage and investments to improve global health security, we examine areas of overlap and offer recommendations for construction of a unified national health system that includes public health.

Performance-based financing in low-income and middle-income countries: isn't it time for a rethink?

This paper questions the view that performance-based financing (PBF) in the health sector is an effective, efficient and equitable approach to improving the performance of health systems in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). PBF was conceived as an open approach adapted to specific country needs, having the potential to foster system-wide reforms. However, as with many strategies and tools, there is a gap between what was planned and what is actually implemented.

Correspondence regarding 'Assefa Y, et al., BMC Health Services Research. 2011; 11 (1):81 and 2014; 14(1):45': The Positive-Deviance approach for translating evidence into practice to improve patient retention in HIV care.

The purpose of this correspondence is to describe how the positive-deviance approach can be used to translate evidence into practice, based on successive studies conducted in Ethiopia. In earlier studies, it was identified that retention in antiretroviral treatment care was variable across health facilities; and, seeking compliance across facilities, a framework was developed based on the practices of those positive-deviant health facilities, where performance was noted to be markedly better. It was found that the positive deviance approach was effective in facilitating the transfer of innovative practices (using different mechanisms) from positive-deviant health facilities to negative-deviant health facilities.

Innovative Use of the Law to Address Complex Global Health Problems Comment on "The Legal Strength of International Health Instruments - What It Brings toGlobal Health Governance?".

Addressing the increasingly globalised determinants of many important problems affecting human health is a complex task requiring collective action. We suggest that part of the solution to addressing intractable global health issues indeed lies with the role of new legal instruments in the form of globally binding treaties, as described in the recent article of Nikogosian and Kickbusch. However, in addition to the use of international law to develop new treaties, another part of the solution may lie in innovative use of existing legal instruments.

Thinking Out of the Box: A Green and Social Climate Fund Comment on "Politics, Power, Poverty and Global Health: Systems and Frames".

Solomon Benatar's paper "Politics, Power, Poverty and Global Health: Systems and Frames" examines the inequitable state of global health challenging readers to extend the discourse on global health beyond conventional boundaries by addressing the interconnectedness of planetary life. Our response explores existing models of international cooperation, assessing how modifying them may achieve the twin goals of ensuring healthy people and planet. First, we address why the inequality reducing post World War II European welfare model, if implemented state-by-state, is unfit for reducing global inequality and respecting environmental boundaries.

Global health governance in the sustainable development goals: Is it grounded in the right to health?

This paper explores the extent to which global health governance - in the context of the early implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals is grounded in the right to health. The essential components of the right to health in relation to global health are unpacked. Four essential functions of the global health system are assessed from a normative, rights-based, analysis on how each of these governance functions should operate.